By Claire Makin
Andrew Waring became chief executive of the $5.5 billion Merchant Navy Officers’ Pension Fund (MNOPF) in March 2008 and quickly realised that its governance structure needed a fairly urgent overhaul. “It was not clear who was taking responsibility for investment decisions,” Waring says.
This was not ideal at a time when the sound of crashing markets could be heard around the world. So in October 2008 the UK-based MNOPF delegated the chief investment officer function to its longstanding consultant, Towers Watson.
Two years later, Towers Watson was re-appointed after a full-scale search for a fiduciary manager led by KPMG, which made headlines and saw Towers Watson beat BlackRock at the final hurdle.
In an unexpected twist, the MNOPF then hired a second investment adviser, Hymans Robertson, in June 2011 to act as a check on the power now delegated to Towers. “There is...