TPI Ltd governance

TPI Ltd Board

Research Funding Partners Council

Strategic Advisory Committee

ASCOR Investor Advisory Committee

TPI Ltd Board members

David Russell: Chair, Transition Pathway Initiative

TPI assesses companies’ preparedness for the transition to a low carbon future, supporting the efforts of investors in addressing climate change.

Prior to this, David was the Head of Responsible Investment at the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the largest UK pension fund, where he worked from 2001 to 2023. He had responsibility for all aspects of RI strategy development and implementation across all asset classes. This included development of policy and strategy, stewardship, and integration across both public and private asset classes and from an asset owner and an asset manager perspective. He also led on the scheme’s formal ESG related reporting, including the UN PRI, the UK Stewardship Code and TCFD reporting.

David is a former Board member of the UN PRI, was involved in the governance of the IIGCC from its inception, and until June 2023 was on the Board of the International Centre for Pensions Management. More broadly, David is a board member of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), a member of the FTSE Russell Sustainable Investment Advisory Committee, and a member of the Columbia Threadneedle Responsible Investment Advisory Council.

Prior to joining USS, David worked as an Environmental Manager for a UK retail company and was for five years a university lecturer in Environmental Management. He has a master’s degree in environmental Impact Assessment.

Stephen Barrie: Deputy Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Church of England Pensions Board

Stephen works across the Board’s stewardship activity. He is a trustee director of the Church Investors Group, Senior Advisor to Mining 2030, and co-Chair of the Global Tailings Registry Working Group (alongside UNEP and ICOLD), working to improve the public disclosure of tailings storage facilities. Previously, he served as Secretary to the Ethical Investment Advisory Group advising the Church of England National Investing Bodies (~£15bn AUM); as a Fellow of the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology; and on the staff (now on the governing body) of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, Oxford. His academic background is in applied moral philosophy, and he holds a PhD from King's College London on the topic of ethics, intentions, and side effects.

Sofia Bartholdy: Responsible Investment Integration Director, Church Commissioners for England

Sofia is the strategic lead for the Commissioners’ approach to climate change and RI integration, including impact/solutions. Her responsibilities include implementing a strategy to meet the Commissioners’ Net Zero by 2050 target and working with the investment teams to monitor external asset managers’ RI practices and sustainability outcomes of the underlying portfolio across ESG themes and asset classes. She is on the TPI Ltd Board of Directors and has held multiple RI roles for Tesco Pension Investment, the PRI and in consulting. She holds an MSc in Applied Economics and Finance from Copenhagen Business School and an MSc in Ecological Economics from Edinburgh University.

Daniel Spencer: Co-Head of Fixed Income at the People’s Partnership

Daniel is responsible for management of the Emerging Market Equity and Multi-Asset Credit portfolios. Prior to Brunel, Daniel spent five years as an Investment Analyst for AXA Framlington where he was responsible for portfolio construction, investment risk and alpha generation support for international equities and multi-asset strategies. Daniel also worked in the international portfolio construction team for JPMorgan Private Bank. He began his career at JPMorgan in 2007 as a fixed income valuations specialist. Daniel holds an MSc in Financial Mathematics and a BSc in Mathematics, Statistics & Operational Research. He also holds the IMC, Certificate in ESG Investing and is a CFA charter holder.

Patrick O’Hara: Director of Responsible Investment & Engagement

With over 10 years’ experience in RI, Patrick has worked in investment management for over 20 years. He joined LGPS Central three years ago to lead their RI and Engagement Team. Prior to this, Patrick worked at USS Investment Management where he was responsible for ESG integration and Stewardship in Public Markets. He also worked as an ESG Analyst in the Global Responsible Investment team at Aviva Investors where he worked on ESG risk reporting and stewardship. Patrick has a background in Risk and Compliance and earlier in his career, worked for the Financial Conduct Authority and the London Stock Exchange. Outside of work, Patrick enjoys dog walking in the countryside, watching Hertford Town FC and spending time with his family. He has an MSc in Sustainable Development from Surrey University.

Chris Rule: Chief Executive of LPPI and LPP Group

Chris leads and oversees ca.£24bn of pensions investments, and the administration of pensions for more than 655,000 members. Chris originally trained as an investment risk manager and is a chartered alternative investment analyst. During a period of over two decades, he has managed a variety of investment portfolios and businesses as both a direct investor and as an allocator of capital, forging partnerships with investors and asset managers. Chris is an Independent Member of the Church of England Pensions Board Investment Committee, a trustee at a primary phase multi-academy trust and holds non-executive director positions within the renewables and project finance sectors, as well as being a Non-Executive Director for the TPI.

Valeria Piani: Head of Stewardship at Standard Life

Valeria joined Standard Life in 2021 to lead the in-house stewardship team and collaborate with asset managers to influence ESG performance by investee companies. She has over 18 years of experience in the industry and has held a number of senior positions at different firms. She joined UBS Asset Management in 2017 as Strategic Engagement Lead responsible for the manager’s climate change engagement programme, stewardship reporting and integration research in the industrial sector. Prior to this, Valeria worked for nine years at the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) where she managed a team of 11 members responsible for coordinating investor collaborative engagement activities with companies on a range of ESG issues. When at the PRI, she supported over 30 investors coalitions involving more than 200 asset owners and investment managers. Her recent publications include reports on engaging on climate change and the added value of stewardship more broadly. Her research on the effectiveness of shareholders’ collaborative engagement activities with companies on ESG issues has been published by the Business & Society Journal and Emerald Group Publishing and was selected by the editors as an Outstanding Author Contribution in the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. In addition to being a non-executive director of the Investor Forum Board and Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) Limited Board, Valeria is also a member of the CA100+ Global Steering Committee, the IIGCC Advisory Group of Corporate Programme and the PRI Advisory Committee of Advance.