The Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) has made two senior hires as the organisation looks to step up its process to become an approved investor.

The platform, backed by the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and seven founding pension fund investors, is seeking authorisation from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to become a registered investor.

It has hired Ed Wilson as investment director and Paula Burgess as COO.

Wilson joins from Lloyds Banking Group, where he was in the commercial banking arm focusing on renewable energy, infrastructure, utilities, debt solutions and capital markets.

Burgess was head of assurance at CCLA, the Church of England’s investment and property management company.

At CCLA, Burgess oversaw compliance, risk management and internal audit functions after she had spent 10 years at Russell Investments.

Mike Weston, chief executive of the platform, said the arrival of the pair would accelerate the PIP’s investment management ambitions.

As a platform, it has helped channel more than £500m into a public/private partnership equity fund via its founding investors and partner schemes.

It also supported partner asset manager Dalmore Capital, part of the winning consortium for a £4.2bn London infrastructure project.

Speaking earlier this year, Weston said it was essential to have appropriate people within the company for FCA authorisation.

He also said he would recruit a head of risk and an investment analytics team.

The PIP is set to launch a multi-strategy infrastructure fund, pending FCA authorisation.

In February, Weston said: “It is important we do everything we have to do in describing this novel concept [to the FCA].

“We should benefit by the fact we are investing in very simple products – real tangible assets, not complex structured derivative instruments.

“We might lose in consideration by [the PIP’s] being a new, different structure with founding investor pension schemes backing the concept.”

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