Leadership

Appointed to the Board January 2016

Experience

Mark Wood CBE has had a long and distinguished career, serving as Chief Executive of some of the country’s largest financial services companies, including Prudential UK & Europe, Axa UK and Jardine Lloyd Thompson Employee Benefits. Mark is a regular commentator in the press on pensions and insurance.

Mark has been at the helm of several financial services and technology start-ups, including Paternoster, a regulated insurance company which he founded in 2005, and Digitalis Reputation Management, the online reputation management company, where he currently serves as Chairman. Mark is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

He was previously the Chairman of the NSPCC and was awarded a CBE in 2017 for services to children.

Committee Membership

• Investment Committee (Chair)
• Nomination Committee (Chair)
• Remuneration Committee

External Appointments

• Chairman, Digitalis Reputation Limited
• Senior Independent Director, RAC Group Ltd
• Chairman, Utility Bidder Limited
• Chairman, Acquis Insurance Management Limited
• Chairman, Ondo InsurTech Plc
• Chairman, Everest Funeral Concierge (UK) Limited
• Trustee, Multiple Sclerosis Society Research Appeal Board
• Trustee, The Gregory Centre for Church Multiplication

Appointed to the Board November 2020

Experience

Mary Francis CBE has extensive and diverse board-level experience across a range of industries, including previous Non-Executive Directorships at the Bank of England, Alliance & Leicester, Aviva, Centrica and Swiss Re Group.

Through her former senior executive positions with HM Treasury, the Prime Minister’s Office, and as Director General of the Association of British Insurers, Mary brings strong governance values to the board, a strong understanding of the interaction between public and private sectors, and skills in strategic decision-making and reputation management.

Mary was awarded a CBE in 2006 for her services to business.

Committee Membership

• Remuneration Committee (Chair)
• Audit & Risk Committee
• Investment Committee
• Nomination Committee

External Appointments

• Non-Executive Director, Barclays plc and Barclays Bank plc
• Member of the UK Takeover Appeal Board
• Senior Adviser, Chatham House

Appointed to the Board November 2019

Experience

Michelle Cracknell CBE has a portfolio career as a Pension Trustee and Non-Executive Director. She has over 30 years’ experience in pensions and retirement planning, including most recently as the Chief Executive of the Pensions Advisory Service. During her time there she significantly grew the number of customers and increased the channels offered, transforming the service to provide greater support on pension freedom legislation, pension scams and transfers from pension schemes. Michelle was awarded a CBE in 2019 for her services to the pensions industry.

Michelle started her career at a financial advice business where she became a shareholding Director prior to selling it to Aegon, and subsequently worked as a Strategy Director at Skandia/Old Mutual. Michelle is a qualified Pensions Actuary.

Committee Membership

• Audit & Risk Committee (Chair)
• Investment Committee
• Nomination Committee
• Remuneration Committee

External Appointments

• Chair, Fidelity Retirement Services
• Non-Executive Director and Trustee, Lloyds Your Tomorrow Trustee Limited
• Non-Executive Director and Trustee, Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Limited
• Independent Non-Executive Director, Non-Executive Director, Just Group Plc
• Independent Non-Executive Director, Just Retirement Limited
• Chair, Fidelity Wealth Management Limited
• Independent Non-Executive Director, Fidelity Holdings (UK) Limited
• Independent Non-Executive Director, Financial Administration Services Ltd
• Independent Non-Executive Director, Partnership Life Assurance Company Limited
• Trustee, Singing Gorilla Projects Charity

Appointed to the Board April 2022

Experience

Lara Oyesanya has extensive legal, regulatory and commercial experience across multiple industries, as well as significant compliance, governance and data privacy expertise. She was formerly the Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Company Secretary at Zepz Group, and before that was General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer at Contis Group. She has also held a number of senior roles at FTSE 100 and financial services businesses including Klarna and Barclays.

Lara is a barrister of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. As a board trustee she is a member of the Commercial and Performance and the HR Committees, Shaw Trust. Additionally, Lara was a former co-opted Member, Committee on Benefactions and External and Legal Affairs, a committee of the University of Cambridge Council, that advised the Vice Chancellor.

Committee Membership

• Audit & Risk Committee
• Investment Committee
• Nomination Committee
• Remuneration Committee

External Appointments

• Trustee, Shaw Trust

Appointed to the Board December 2014

Experience

Romi Savova founded PensionBee in 2014 to simplify pension savings in the UK, following a difficult pension transfer experience of her own. As the Chief Executive Officer, she has played a pivotal role in advancing consumer standards in the pensions industry, from reducing transfer times to campaigning for the full abolition of exit fees. Romi is also a member of the government’s Pensions Dashboards Programme Steering Group, which was set up to advise on the delivery of pensions dashboards.

Prior to founding PensionBee, Romi worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Benchmark, holding varied roles in risk management, investment banking and financial technology. Romi received an MBA from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker scholar and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University.

Committee Membership

• Investment Committee
• Nomination Committee

External Appointments

• Director, Seen on Screen
• Director, PensionBee Trustees Limited

Appointed to the Board January 2016

Experience

Jonathan Lister Parsons co-founded PensionBee with Romi in 2014. In his role as the Chief Technology Officer, he is passionate about bringing customers' pension experience into the 21st century, and using technology to transform pension transfer processes that typically take months to a five-minute process on a smartphone.

Jonathan champions a tech-forward culture within the business, aiming to raise the level of technology literacy among employees, and creating opportunities for people to develop technical skills as they move through different roles in their career at PensionBee.

Prior to co-founding PensionBee, Jonathan founded a digital consultancy, Penrose, and worked at British Telecom. Jonathan holds an MSci in Experimental and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge.

External Appointments

• Director, PensionBee Trustees Limited

Appointed to the Board June 2022

Experience

Christoph J. Martin is the Chief Financial Officer of PensionBee, having joined the company in 2019. He is responsible for financial reporting and business planning at PensionBee. Christoph regularly engages with the public markets, including PensionBee’s investors, to communicate the company’s financial objectives.

Christoph previously worked in private equity investment at Providence Equity Partners, focusing on investments in technology, media, telecommunications and education. Prior to that he worked in mergers and acquisitions, covering financial institutions at Morgan Stanley. Christoph holds a BSc in Business Administration from the WU Vienna.

External Appointments

• None

Experience

Romi Savova founded PensionBee in 2014 to simplify pension savings in the UK, following a difficult pension transfer experience of her own. As the Chief Executive Officer, she has played a pivotal role in advancing consumer standards in the pensions industry, from reducing transfer times to campaigning for the full abolition of exit fees. Romi is also a member of the government’s Pensions Dashboards Programme Steering Group, which was set up to advise on the delivery of pensions dashboards.

Prior to founding PensionBee, Romi worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Credit Benchmark, holding varied roles in risk management, investment banking and financial technology. Romi received an MBA from Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker scholar and graduated summa cum laude from Emory University.

Experience

Jonathan Lister Parsons co-founded PensionBee with Romi in 2014. In his role as the Chief Technology Officer, he is passionate about bringing customers' pension experience into the 21st century, and using technology to transform pension transfer processes that typically take months to a five-minute process on a smartphone.

Jonathan champions a tech-forward culture within the business, aiming to raise the level of technology literacy among employees, and creating opportunities for people to develop technical skills as they move through different roles in their career at PensionBee.

Prior to co-founding PensionBee, Jonathan founded a digital consultancy, Penrose, and worked at British Telecom. Jonathan holds an MSci in Experimental and Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge.

Experience

Jasper Martens is the Chief Marketing Officer of PensionBee, having joined the company in 2015. He is responsible for marketing across the business and brings extensive multichannel marketing experience to PensionBee, gathered over 15 years working in financial services and digital agencies.

Prior to joining PensionBee, Jasper was Head of Marketing and Communications at small business insurance provider, Simply Business and advised other fintechs such as Superscript on their marketing strategy. Before moving to London, Jasper ran his own online marketing agency which he founded in the Netherlands.

Experience

Christoph J. Martin is the Chief Financial Officer of PensionBee, having joined the company in 2019. He is responsible for financial reporting and business planning at PensionBee. Christoph regularly engages with the public markets, including PensionBee’s investors, to communicate the company’s financial objectives.

Christoph previously worked in private equity investment at Providence Equity Partners, focusing on investments in technology, media, telecommunications and education. Prior to that he worked in mergers and acquisitions, covering financial institutions at Morgan Stanley. Christoph holds a BSc in Business Administration from the WU Vienna.

Experience

Tess Nicholson is the Chief Operating Officer of PensionBee, having joined the company in 2015. She is responsible for a range of operational activities across the business, including customer success, compliance and banking operations.

Tess was previously Operations Manager and UK Commercial Manager at GO Markets UK Trading Limited (formerly Vantage FX UK Trading Limited). Tess holds a BA Hons degree in Fashion Design with Communication from Birmingham City University and is currently studying for a Masters in Social & Political Theory at Birkbeck, University of London.

Experience

Lisa Picardo is the Chief Business Officer of PensionBee in the UK, having joined the company in 2020. Lisa facilitates the ongoing execution of the company’s strategy and corporate development in the United Kingdom, having previously led the company's IPO and its subsequent transfer to the Premium segement. Lisa is a member of the Department for Work and Pensions’ Small Pots Delivery Group and represents PensionBee at the Association of British Insurers.

Lisa previously worked at Morgan Stanley for 13 years, with the first seven years spent in the European Mergers & Acquisitions department, where she gained extensive experience working on many large and complex UK public transactions, and also played a role in firm management. Lisa then joined the Morgan Stanley Private Equity Fund, focused on investing in mid-market opportunities across sectors, with an interest in consumer-facing businesses. In 2015, Lisa founded LITTLECIRCLE, an online luxury childrenswear retailer with a platform for pre-loved fashion. Outside of PensionBee, Lisa is a Founding Member of the Breast Cancer Now Development Board. She holds a BSc in Economics from Bristol University.

Experience

Clare Reilly is the Chief Engagement Officer of PensionBee, having joined the company in 2017. She is responsible for the investment range and managing the environmental, social and governance framework in line with the PensionBee vision.

Clare previously worked in the not-for-profit sector, in Corporate Relations at Citizens Advice and Fellowship at the Royal Society of Arts. Clare holds a BA Hons from University College London and an MSc from the University of Oxford in Russian and East European Studies.

Experience

Matt Loft is Chief Design Officer at PensionBee, having joined the company in 2015. He is responsible for the design and customer experience of PensionBee's products and the company's visual brand, bringing over 18 years experience in designing customer-centric products.

Prior to joining PensionBee, Matt worked at design agencies and in-house for some of the UK's largest companies and organisations, including The Money Advice Service, Legal & General, The Ministry of Justice, Oxford University and the V&A.

Experience

Matthew Cavanagh is the Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of PensionBee, having previously worked as General Counsel to the company in 2015 and re-joining the company in September 2023. Matthew heads PensionBee Group's legal function, with responsibility for the provision of legal advice to all aspects of the business and its respective boards, and managing PensionBee's external legal advisory relationships.

Matthew has over 20 years of legal experience specialising in asset and investment management, funds and finance law. He previously was a lawyer in private practice at leading international law firms Clifford Chance, Linklaters and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, being also a partner at King & Wood Mallesons SJBerwin and senior in-house lawyer as General Counsel & Partner at Christofferson, Robb & Company and Director, Executive Legal Counsel at leading sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority.

Matthew was a council member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association Legal Advisory Council from 2020-2023. He is a solicitor qualified in England & Wales, Ireland and Australia (Queensland and High Court of Australia), a trustee of the international trust for The University of Queensland and a Liveryman of The City of London Solicitors' Company. Matthew holds an LLM (specialising in Commercial Law), LLB (Hons) and BA (Double Major in Chinese) from The University of Queensland.

Experience

Petra Miskov is the Chief Risk Officer of PensionBee, having joined the company in 2022. She is responsible for enterprise risk management, including maintaining an integrated risk framework, with a special interest in collaborative risk culture.

Prior to joining PensionBee, Petra worked at the London Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, KPMG and Mercer in a variety of senior roles in the areas of risk management, quantitative advisory, investment management and pension consulting. Petra holds a MSci in Mathematics and Statistics from the New York University and she graduated summa cum laude from the City University of New York.