Ruston Smith Chairman
Ruston has 35 years' senior executive and non executive experience in the retail, pensions and asset management industry. He has a real customer focus and has led a number of successful industry initiatives. He has an MBA with distinction, is a former Chair of the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association and now holds a number of independent trustee and non exec directorships as Chair.
Kevin Hollister Director
Kevin is a previous pensions scheme actuary with over 25 years experience in pensions, investment and modelling. In 2020, Kevin launched Guiide to use this knowledge to help individuals plan their retirement. Passionate about people getting the best retirement outcome possible, he is a regular speaker at pension events and podcasts and likes to talk about retirement in the press and anywhere else he gets the chance.
Philip Hodges Director
Throughout Philip’s +30 years he has been at the forefront of change in pensions with Prudential, KPMG and international software companies. His career spans developing the first digital multi-manager occupational scheme in the 90’s, launching new services for pension freedom in 2016 and playing an active part in the consolidation of the Master Trust market in 2017.
Stewart Lawrie Director
Stewart has been engaged as a software developer in energy and finance sectors for 20+ years. Experience gained with companies like the Bank of Scotland and Aberdeen Asset Management has provided him with the knowledge of how to design and build complex financial information systems.
Clare Hawkins Non-Executive Director
Clare is a former NHS Trust Chief Executive and Executive coach with 35 years of governance experience, many years of which were at board level. Just as importantly, as a female non-pension expert Clare's insight into what can be done to encourage more engagement from females with their pensions and help address the current pension gap is invaluable to us.
Christopher Dorman OBE Non-Executive Director
Managing a large photonics company, Chris brings his experience in business and "outside the industry" view on UK pensions and employee benefits. He was recently awarded an OBE for service to Photonics, Laser Technology and Exports in 2019.
Steve Goddard Non-Executive Director
Steve has over 35 years experience in the pensions industry. In addition to being CEO of a Pension Administration Group with around £3Bn of pension assets he was the founder of the Spinnaker Master Trust which attracted clients including the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). More recently he has relaunched the Pension Playpen and Trustee company HS Sole Trustees.
James Mcloughlin Sales Manager
James has many years of commercial and marketing experience with a proven record of building brands and developing customer-centric programmes. He has been pivotal in helping widen our use throughout affiliate groups such as NACAS and CIPR to provide access to our bespoke tools to match their members’ demographics.
Craig Robertson Product Designer
With 20+ years experience in the web industry, Craig's skillset lies between Front-end web development and User Experience design. Working for companies such as Brewin Dolphin and Lloyds Banking Group, Craig is perfectly placed to help bring design to the Guiide experience.
Helen Hollister Product Designer
Helen has 30 years in the design industry, including web design, front and back end web development and User Experience. Working in design for companies such as John Lewis, Helen is perfectly placed to help improve all design aspects of the Guiide experience.
Julius Pursaill Strategic Adviser
Julius's executive career began with the defined contribution business at Mercury Asset Management and ended as head of e-business for Merrill Lynch Investment Management. Since then he has been trustee, adviser and non executive at NEST, USS, RBS, Heineken, Prudential and Royal London. Fintech roles include Barrie & Hibbert, Quay Software, Byhiras Trust, Cushon, Tumelo and Guiide.
David Fairs Strategic Adviser
David is one of the most experienced pension individuals around with a career in both consulatancy and regulation at the highest levels. An actuary by profession, he was formerly a Partner in KPMGs pension practice before going on to be an Executive Director at the Pensions Regulator for many years. He is currently a partner at the actuarial consultancy, Lane Clarke and Peacock.