Ruston Smith – former chairman of the UK’s pension fund trade body – has left his role as Tesco’s group pensions director in favour of non-executive roles at the pension fund.
He has also stepped down as CEO of the supermarket chain’s in-house asset management company, Tesco Pension Investment.
A spokesperson for Tesco confirmed Smith’s departure at the end of March, but said he would “continue to work for Tesco in a non-executive capacity as chairman of the trustee board for the UK Pension Scheme and Tesco Pension Investment Limited”.
Alongside his new non-executive roles at Tesco, Smith has this week been announced as the non-executive chair of PTL, an independent trustee firm, following the company’s management buyout. He is also a trustee director at the People’s Pension, a defined contribution (DC) master trust.
In February, Smith was named as one of three expert advisers to the UK government’s review of auto-enrolment, alongside Jamie Jenkins, head of pensions strategy at Standard Life, and Chris Curry, director of the Pensions Policy Institute.
Smith joined Tesco in 2001, and was most recently group director for people, pensions, and insurable risk. He was chair of the National Association of Pension Funds – now the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association – for two years until October 2015. He remains a non-executive director at the trade body.
Among his other portfolio positions are non-executive roles at JP Morgan Asset Management International Limited and JP Morgan Funds Limited, and trustee director for Standard Life’s DC master trust.
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