Pensions - Articles - Giles Craven joins team at BESTrustees

 BESTrustees is pleased to welcome Giles Craven to its team of Independent Trustees. Giles, who joins as an Associate on 1 November, brings the number of BESTrustees Directors and Associates who work with pension fund clients to 26.

 
 Giles joins BESTrustees following a 32 year career with Royal Dutch Shell, most recently as Vice President Group Pensions. He already has extensive experience of trusteeship, having served on the trustee boards of the Shell Pension plans in Malaysia, Bermuda and Canada and in the UK on the boards of the Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund and the Merchant Navy Ratings’ Pension Fund.

  

 “People like Giles do not come along very often, so I am delighted that he is joining our team”, said Alan Pickering BESTrustees’ Chairman. “Giles has a unique blend of strategic vision and practical experience. His investment expertise will be a wonderful asset for us and those clients with whom we work. Giles will be equally at home in both defined contribution and defined benefit environments, so I am sure that he will soon have an impressive line up of schemes that will benefit from his energy and experience.”

 
 During his time at Shell, Giles oversaw the management of its maturing defined benefit plans, focusing on the relationship between risk taking and funding levels. He was also closely involved with initiatives to raise trustee competence and standards of governance. His extensive investment experience includes running an in-house investment team, managing a scheme’s relationship with its fiduciary managers and sitting on the investment committee of schemes which had delegated their chief investment office function. Giles is a past member of the NAPF Investment Council and past Chair of the UK GIPS Committee.