Dalriada Trustees appoints John Wilson as head of technical, research and policy

Dalriada Trustees, one of the largest providers of independent professional trustee services to pensions schemes in the UK, has announced the appointment of John Wilson as had of technical, research and policy.

Dalriada Trustees appoints John Wilson as head of technical, research and policy

John Wilson

The company has also appointed Sarah Ballantyne as a professional trustee.

Mr Wilson joins from JLT Employee Benefits, now part of Mercer, where as head of technical he formed part of the firm’s Quality Research Group. John’s role is a newly created position and he will be responsible for the production and development of new research, insight and intelligence for the benefit of the Dalriada team and the schemes which it helps govern.



Mr Wilson has over 33 years’ experience in the pensions industry, spending 20 of them at JLT Employee Benefits where he led the in-house research function and authored a number of white papers on topics such as DB deficits and the adequacy of retirement. He has also held roles at firms such as Standard Life, Aegon, Scottish Widows and Buck Consultants and is currently the chair of the Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) in Scotland and a member of the SPP’s Legislation Committee.

Dalriada has also announced the appointment of experienced Covenant Adviser and qualified Insolvency Practitioner, Sarah Ballantyne, as a professional trustee. Sarah joins from PwC, where she carried out over 100 covenant assessments during her 12 years at the company.

Dalriada Trustees appoints John Wilson as head of technical, research and policy

Sarah Ballantyne

Ms Ballantyne’s previous restructuring experience with large multinational corporates, both in the UK and Europe brings invaluable insight to her role as professional trustee.

She will join the firm’s Manchester office, while John will be based in the Glasgow office, both appointments will serve to strengthen the firm’s existing expertise and add to the company’s now 170 strong team across the UK office network in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and London. Sarah will focus on helping to grow Dalriada’s portfolio of trusteeship appointments to healthy pension schemes in North of England, as well as supporting more financially challenged schemes across the UK.

Tom Lukic, director at Dalriada Trustees, said: “The addition of John and Sarah demonstrates our commitment to developing a comprehensive team from a broad range of pension backgrounds to enhance our trustee service and client offering. They bring a wealth of experience to our offices in Glasgow and Manchester and to the wider Dalriada team nationwide as we continue to develop our business.

“We have created a new role for John to help further develop Dalriada’s trustee offering and ensure that we are at the forefront of regulation in the industry.

“As well as further strengthening our Manchester-based trustee team, Sarah’s experience in covenant advisory and restructuring work adds to our existing resource focused on delivering specialist trustee input and support in transactional and restructuring situations.”

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