UK – Leading UK pensions figure Mike Taylor is retiring as chief executive of the London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA), after seeing the public sector body through major changes in the seven years he has spent in the role.

The LPFA, which manages pension fund assets of more than £4.6bn (€5.4bn) and provides administration for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), said Taylor had been considering the timing of his retirement for the past year.

Edmund Truell, LPFA chairman, said: "This is a decision Mike has not taken lightly but believes the timing is now right for him to hand over the reins to the next generation to lead the business through the next phase of its development."

Having taken the LPFA through a period of significant change and the initial phase of the call for evidence into the future of the Local Government Pension Scheme – announced by local government minister Brandon Lewis in June – it had been agreed that now was the most appropriate time for Taylor to retire, the LPFA said.

Truell said now that the LPFA's submission to the call for evidence was almost complete, the authority had time to put a new chief executive in place ahead of what would be "an extremely exciting and challenging period."

Susan Martin, LPFA deputy chief executive, will now take over from Taylor as interim chief executive until a successor is appointed later this year, the authority said.

Martin has been in the role of deputy chief executive since 2011, and has been working at the LPFA since 2007.

She has more than 20 years' experience of work in a range of public and private sector organisations, the authority said.

Before taking the helm at the LPFA in 2006, Taylor was executive director of resources at Surrey County Council, and had worked in public sector finance for 34 years.

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