Why we need greater diversity in trustee boards

Professionally, my career began in early 1990, when I started working for Noble Lowndes & Partners as a pensions administrator. I liked both the work and my colleagues, and am still in contact with some of them. NLP was eventually taken over by Sedgwick, then Mercer. 

While at NLP I took advantage of the support available for those wishing to undertake further professional studies and began my Pensions Management Institute exams — I now hold the fellowship. When I eventually moved on, I worked as pensions technical manager at the in-house pensions department of Halliburton UK in Surrey, and then as a pension fund manager at De Beers.

Greater diversity of backgrounds leads to greater diversity of thought, which results in better outcomes for members of pension schemes

While my career has been one of constant progress, looking back there have been occasions where my ethnicity has led people to jump to some very incorrect conclusions; for example, I have been mistaken for a member of the catering staff or the tea lady. There was even a scheme member who informed me of his surprise that people “like me” were in the position I was in.

I tend to deal with these instances with humour; the person who mistook me for the tea lady was invariably embarrassed. I laughed when asked “when did they start hiring people ‘like you’?”.

Constantly excluded

When I became a professional trustee there was one member-nominated trustee who would constantly exclude me from emails and send these instead to my colleague. I consider this behaviour as an expression of an old way of thinking and tend not to take it personally.

Attitudes are changing and the rate of progress towards a greater sense of enlightenment within pensions is, like the sector as a whole, slow but steady. I now see and experience significantly less negative behaviour.

When I started out in pensions there was no talk of inclusion or diversity when hiring or in the workplace. I was often the only black person in the room, and sometimes the only woman. We have clearly come a long way over the past 30 years.

The pensions industry offers a rewarding career to all, including members of the black, Asian, and minority ethnic community. For my part, I have remained in the industry for many reasons, including the constant changes, the fact that it is technical and intellectually challenging, and the variety of work.

One day you might be in meetings making decisions about actuarial assumptions, another day you might be dealing with a member who has questions about his or her pension rights.

We are kept on our toes by HM Revenue & Customs, the Pensions Regulator and other government agencies, and also need to keep abreast of legal developments.

Diversity of thought

As I have progressed in my career I have come to realise we need more Bame people to join the industry, and pass the relevant exams in pensions, law, accounting, actuarial science, etc. Greater diversity of backgrounds leads to greater diversity of thought, which results in better outcomes for members of pension schemes.

As a professional trustee I am pleased to mentor and encourage others, and do truly believe that in today’s society any of the professional challenges that I have faced as a black woman have been more than outweighed by the positive experiences that I have had.

The importance of pensions cannot be understated. We all should have pension savings and the goal must be that the industry is truly representative of its members.

The talent is out there; we need to provide the opportunity for all to consider the pensions industry as a career. 

Shola Salako is a professional trustee at Dalriada