Ombudsman Anthony Arter awarded in New Year honours

Anthony Arter has been the Pensions Ombudsman and Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman since May 2015, and was awarded an OBE for services to the pensions industry and to charity.

Arter is a solicitor who has specialised in pensions since 1996 and spent time as Eversheds LLP’s head of pensions, as well as having been a senior partner at the company until 2014.

He is also an independent trustee and was appointed as a pro bono trustee director of the Action for Children Pension Fund in 2018.

Arter will remain at TPO as deputy pensions ombudsman once his term ends on January 15. Dominic Harris, who was appointed Pensions Ombudsman in the summer, will be taking on the role on January 16. 

Alison Rose was awarded a DBE for her current leadership of NatWest Group, as the first woman to lead a major UK lending bank.

Rose joined the group as a graduate in 1992, and under her tenure NatWest has founded a number of environmental programmes, including the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.

She also authored a government-commissioned review into female entrepreneurship, which led to the establishment of the Investing in Women Code. 

Also on the list was Keith Skeoch, former chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen and former chair of the Investment Association.

Skeoch was given a Knight Bachelor, which means he is knighted but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry.

He was given the award for his “strong contribution to the public good”, for his contribution to the Asset Management Taskforce, as well as his time as interim chair of the Financial Reporting Council, developing the UK’s new stewardship code. 

The former permanent secretary, who was sacked by previous chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on his first day in Number 11, was awarded one of Britain’s highest accolades.

Tom Scholar joins the Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath for his work as permanent secretary to the Treasury between 2016 and 2022.

The government said he has been one of the “most influential civil servants of recent times”, leading both the Treasury through the pandemic and the government through the global financial crisis in 2008.

Some 1,109 awards were given out in the first list signed off by King Charles, of which 548 were women.

Ivan Menezes, chief executive of Diageo, was included in the list, as well as Rolls-Royce chair Anita Frew and Lord Mark Sedwill, who stepped down as cabinet secretary in 2020.

This article first appeared on FTAdviser.com