The Trustees
The Pace trustee board is called Pace Trustees Limited. It is a separate company from the Co-op.
Independent Trustee Services Limited (ITS, part of Independent Governance Group) is appointed to the trustee board as a sole professional trustee. ITS’s main representatives are Chris Martin and Priti Ruparelia, who work primarily on the defined benefit and defined contributions sections respectively. Biographies for Chris and Priti are set out below.
Using ITS as professional trustee gives the Pace trustee board access to a broad team of pensions specialists drawn from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. This ensures key decisions can be made quickly, in an informed, balanced and impartial way.
Chris Martin
Chris Martin was elected Chair of the Pace Board in May 2019 and is the founder and Executive Chairman of Independent Trustee Services (ITS).
He has been a professional trustee for 34 years and acts as trustee on a number of complex defined benefit schemes. He also leads on two of ITS’s larger defined contribution schemes.
Chris has been a Trustee on some of the Co-op’s other pension schemes for ten years.
Priti Ruparelia
Priti Ruparelia has worked in the pension provider arena for over 25 years. She has considerable experience working with trustees, employers and their advisers.
She uses her experience and expertise to build strong, collaborative relationships. Her recent experience involved heading up the DC Client Relationship team at Legal & General, which included being responsible for the L&G Master Trust relationship for a period of time.
Prior to that, Priti was a Senior Client Director at BlackRock/ Aegon where she managed both DC and DB client relationships.
Priti has experience in DC contract, single trust and master trust arrangements. She has overseen the setup of new DC pension schemes as well as the transition of Trust schemes to Master Trust arrangements.