Helen Dean has announced she will step down as chief executive of the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest).
She has been chief executive for nearly eight years and during her tenure Nest became one of the largest pension schemes in the UK.
Before Nest was formed, Dean was one of the architects of the auto-enrolment policy at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
In a statement Nest said that her team was tasked with coming up with a solution to the UK’s chronic under-saving in pensions.
Their solution, incorporating inertia into enrolment has helped millions of UK workers start contributing into a pension, many for the first time.
From DWP Dean moved to The Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), Nest’s predecessor, changing from policy to delivery.
Dean and the PADA team were tasked to build a low-cost, high-quality pension scheme from scratch.
According to Nest it now stands as the largest UK pension scheme by members (12 million), responsible for investing around £450m a month on behalf of its members.
During her time as CEO Dean signed the Women in Finance Charter on behalf of Nest, overseen the creation of Nest’s first diversity groups.
And also published Nest’s gender and ethnicity pay reports, committing Nest corporation to a path of continual improvement.
Commenting on her announcement, Dean paid tribute to the people who she’s worked with over the years.
“The success of Nest is down to the hard work of many, many people I’ve had the pleasure to work with over the years. I’m delighted to have played my part in Nest’s story and can’t wait to watch how it continues to flourish in the future. Nest will always have a special place in my heart,” she said.
And added: “It’s important for the continuity of Nest that the board has plenty of time to run a competitive and thorough recruitment process, as the priority will be finding the right person for the role. I’m therefore confirming that I’ll be leaving Nest next year to allow someone else the honour and privilege of this wonderful job.
“With the new scheme administrator contract in place, I feel confident now is the right time to step down and allow my successor to continue driving forward the digital transformation of Nest’s platform.”
