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Scheme governance

With The Smart Pension Master Trust workplace pension scheme, you can be confident that employees’ savings are looked after and that expert governance is in place.

Scheme Trustee

Our Trustee is a company with a board of experienced trustee directors who are focused on enabling the best outcomes for you and your employees. The Trustee directors consider our members’ interests, ensuring that we have robust systems and processes in place and make sure members' savings are invested responsibly.

They also:

Invest members' savings in line with the Statement of Investment Principles

Produce an annual Chair's Statement to evidence their work, our values, and the value for members

Detail the board's approach to environmental, social and governance issues

Meet our Trustee Directors

We have a diverse board of Trustee Directors with decades of combined industry experience who bring a range of perspectives, experiences and networks, strengthening our governance, decision-making and long-term impact. 

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Raj Mody

Chair of Trustee
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Raj Mody
Chair of Trustee

Raj Mody joined the Smart Pension Master Trust Board in 2025. He brings over 30 years of experience in the pensions industry, spanning defined contribution, defined benefit, technology, policy, and governance. He has held several senior executive and non-executive roles, with a portfolio of Board and Chair appointments. He was previously a Partner at a Big Four professional services firm, leading their retirement consulting business in the UK and globally. Raj is also a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

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Anna Darnley

Trustee Director
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Anna Darnley
Trustee Director

Before joining the Trustee Board in September 2019, Anna was a trustee of the Accenture Retirement Savings Plan (UK). She previously worked as a digital strategy consultant with Oliver Wyman specialising in the design, build and launch of digital banks and retail investment apps in East Asia. She currently works as Head of Card, Global Money for a leading payments app.

Anna brings this technological expertise to the Board, along with her passion for great member communications and re-engaging scheme members. In 2019, she was recognised as Trustee of the Year at the Professional Pensions Rising Star Awards.

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David Brown

Trustee Director
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David Brown
Trustee Director

David joined the Smart Pension Master Trust Board in October 2018. He is a Fully Accredited Professional Pension Trustee with a range of Board appointments. David has over 35 years’ experience worldwide in the pension and investment industry, working as an operator and consultant. He has worked for two of the Big Four consulting firms and was the UK and ROI Pensions and Payroll Manager for Tesco.

David is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute. He is passionate about ESG and addressing the risks and opportunities arising from climate change. He holds the CFA Certificates in ESG Investing (2021) and Impact Investing (2024).

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Nikesh Patel

Trustee Director
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Nikesh Patel
Trustee Director

Nikesh Patel joined the board in 2021 and chairs our investment sub-committee. He has nearly two decades of experience in consulting trustees and employers on defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension schemes. Across all investment matters, including as an award-winning Chief Investment Officer for his role in managing the assets for several pension funds in the UK. He has a keen interest in responsible investment, alongside a deep expertise in both public and private markets. He is an actuary by training and is also a trustee director of the Church of England Pensions Board.

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Kim Gubler

Trustee Director
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Kim Gubler
Trustee Director

Kim Gubler joined the Smart Pension Master Trust Board in April 2024. Kim has over 30 years’ experience in the pensions industry, including as a founding director of the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) and was Chair from 2019 to 2025, whereupon she became President. She is a Fellow of both the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and the Pensions Advisory Service, and was an independent Trustee Director of the Crystal Master Trust. Kim sits on the Pension Dashboards Programme Advisory Group and DWP’s Default Consolidator Delivery Group and is the PMI’s Principal Examiner for Professionalism and Governance.

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Paul Bucksey

Trustee Director
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Paul Bucksey
Trustee Director

Paul joined the Smart Pension Master Trust Board in June 2025. He is passionate about helping individuals build wealth via the workplace and has spent more than 20 years working for some of the UK's leading workplace pension providers. Prior to joining the Board, he served as Chief Investment Officer of the Smart Pension Master Trust, up until December 2024, where he also chaired the Scheme Strategist. Before his time at Smart Pension, Paul was Managing Director at BlackRock and later Aegon, where he led their UK defined contribution workplace pension scheme. He is also an independent member of the Prudential Independent Governance Committee.

The Trustee Directors would love to hear from you

The Trustee Directors are keen to get as much feedback as possible about how they can improve the pension scheme. If you have a suggestion, please do not hesitate to contact them.

Authorised and supervised by The Pensions Regulator

The Smart Pension Master Trust is authorised and supervised by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). This means we have met and continue to meet the rigorous, high quality governance standards set by TPR via a financially sustainable and effectively managed pension scheme.  

Robust governance framework

At Smart Pension, we have structures, tools and processes in place to make sure our scheme adheres to strict governance standards.

Our robust governance framework means we can achieve the best possible outcome for every scheme member. All savings are held in the Smart Pension Master Trust, which is separated from our operations and our customers' finances.

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Scheme information

Read our scheme documents and information

Contact us

Get in touch to learn more about Smart Pension