Richard Tomlinson is Chief Investment Officer at Local Pensions Partnership Investments. He was previously head of portfolio advisory and partner at Albourne, where he spent over 6 years, and prior to that managed was Head of Multi Strategy and Absolute Return at Old Mutual Asset Managers. This podcast builds on the themes recently shared in the Always a Pensions Angle collaboration which featured Richard.

We begin our conversation with Richard's diverse educational background and how he was interested in particular in entrepreneurship, some of which sprang from his family upbringing. We speak about how that influenced his later moves into other organizations and the creative mindset that followed. Moving then to his focus at the helm of the investment team at LPPI we discuss the recent expansion of the partnership and the challenges and opportunities that it represents. With the new mission statement "Together, Let's Do More" we speak about what that "More" will entail and how in particular the advisory role will be built out and the new responsibilities assumed.

Governance, accountability and stakeholder interests feature strongly in this discussion as do the realities of embarking upon a set of new frontiers.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.

The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.

PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwide.

Carolina (Carol) Strobel, is based in Sao Paolo and a founding partner at Antler Brasil. She is also a Founder and Operational Partner at Redpoint eventures and holds a number of Board Roles, including of public companies in Brazil. Our conversation starts with her original career as a lawyer, and how the deal-level detail naturally led her towards venture investing.

We speak then about the venture capital ecosystem in Brazil and Latin America more generally and the areas where a venture capital investor can truly add value - sometimes it is more about being a "whatsapp" away rather than formal board responsibilities. We speak about the challenge of becoming visible in certain finance settings and how it is important to trust one's skillset and expertise and let that be the basis to lose the imposter syndrome.

Moving then to board roles, Carol discusses the importance of boards changing with the times and sometimes being "rebooted" in order to cope with change when it comes to technology and new business models. This is where expert technical knowledge comes in.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.

The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.

PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwide.

A special bonus episode brought to you in conjunction with the Always a Pensions Angle Podcast, by D G Publishing. This podcast was recorded in January 2026 at their conference in Windsor.

Richard Tomlinson has responsibility for management of all investment and client activity at LPPI. He has more than 20 years of investment experience. Prior to joining LPPI in 2017, Richard was Head of Portfolio Advisory (EMEA) at Albourne Partners for six years where he advised European investors on alternative investments, portfolio construction and risk management. Earlier in his career, he was Head of Multi-Strategy at Old Mutual Asset Managers and prior to this an analyst at GNI Fund Management.

Our conversation covers the evolution of their product mix as the pool grows, the development of the advisory function, the opening of an office in Bristol as the pool expands, and their core mission: paying pensions as they fall due, affordably and efficiently. We also take the crystal ball out to look at what the next five years may hold.

Richard features on The Fiftyfaces Podcast later in Series 2 of 2026.

Michael Davis, is Head of Global Retirement Strategy at T. Rowe Price and former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor (2009–2012), and will be retiring in May of 2026. He has had a long career in finance interspersed with spells of public service, including in particular a role as Assistant Secretary in the US Department of Labor, from 2009 to 2012. He has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard and remains committed to the study of global leadership as well as the promotion of opportunity.

Our conversation starts with Michael's non-traditional path into finance, and his upbringing in the south. We learn what drew him to finance, and the strong underpinning of service that is a thread throughout.

Michael explains how translating between different worlds shaped his leadership philosophy of dignity, integrity, and learning from ethical leaders and presidential biographies, citing Truman’s view that certainty never fully arrives. He outlines T. Rowe Price’s differentiated retirement platform- $1.8T managed with about two-thirds retirement-related, active target-date leadership, record-keeping for 2.5M participants, and 1.1M individual investors- and the value of combining stakeholder signals.

His core beliefs include integrity, transparency, simple communication, diversification, and a balanced view of active and passive.

Looking ahead, he highlights the unresolved challenge of decumulation and delivering trusted advice at scale, arguing defaults beat financial literacy alone, and emphasizing that asset managers ultimately “sell trust.”

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.

The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.

PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwid

Ryan Boothroyd is Head of External Management at Border to Coast Pensions Partnership. We start by learning about his path into finance - some of his early interests that were from far outside finance. from a non-finance background, early career “wobbles,” and formative mentors.

Ryan explains his investment beliefs: skepticism about consistent active outperformance, whey to have a high bar for manager skill, what he thinks of efficiency in markets, and a shift from contrarian valuation to greater respect for momentum and catalysts.

He describes what makes effective external partnerships- mutual understanding, proactive support, and feeling like an extension of the team rather than a simple offering of “bells and whistles.” Ryan discusses Border to Coast’s growth priorities: demonstrating benefits of scale beyond cost savings, institutionalizing processes, and exploring AI cautiously. In addition, we cover developing advisory and investment management services, a coherent fund range, his sustainability master’s, stewardship impact, and the nascent “nature” investment opportunity set,

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.

The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.

PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwid

What are the challenges of growth? What are opportunities? What if you get to create a client advisory function from scratch? Where would you start?

In this special bonus episode - one of five that we will be launching every Friday for the next four weeks - is part of a special collaboration with Always a Pensions Angle Podcast by DG publishing. A few months ago at a conference hosted by DB Publishing I sat down with five leaders across the LGPS to capture their thoughts on the current state of transition among the asset pools.

Trevor is a friend and long term contact of mine on the LGPS circuit. We first worked together at Lancashire County Pension Fund over 10 years ago, were co-advisers at South Yorkshire Pensions Authority and I'm now so pleased to see his success at LGPS Central, where he is Chief Client & Advisory Officer.

Trevor has extensive LGPS and broader investment management experience and has worked as an investment consultant recognised as a leading expert in private market investment. Trevor has been a member of the LGPS community since working as Deputy CIO at Lancashire County Pension Fund (LCPF) and then Deputy CIO and Investment Director for Private Credit at LGPS pooling entity LPPI.

In this podcast we dig in to what it means to create a client advisory role, ask about whether there is any conflict inherent in being both client and shareholder, on the part of the Administering Authorities and discuss the importance of applying internal rigour.

Lin Yue, previously led the strategic trustees business at Goldman Sachs Asset Management in London where she was responsible for key relationships in the UK institutional market. She has been recognized in the HERoes 100 Women Future Leaders by Yahoo Finance for three consecutive years and a finalist as Asian Women of Achievement Award.

Our conversation covers her life journey from China through to finance in London, and we cite the wonderful LinkedIn post part of This Little Girl is Me campaign in which she chronicles the serendipitous road that this took. We speak in particular about taking up space as a woman in finance, and how, initially she thought that she had to conform in order to find her voice at the table - Lin then realised that another approach might be to build a new table at which she could be her authentic self.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.

The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.

PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwide.

We are delighted to bring you this special conversation with John Harney who is a former guest on the show and a prominent writer and thinker on pensions as well as career and wellness topics. Our conversation picks up with where we left off - John's former discussion on the podcast in which he described his unconventional career journey as well as a love of baking, nurtured during Covid.

We move then to discuss the evolution of John's current thinking on pensions - how pensions should form part of the holistic risk discussion that all companies hold, and further how the the structure of ultimate responsibility resting with the trustees while major functions are outsourced is an important distinctive feature. This unconventional lens holds a host of opportunities for re-thinking how we see pensions and we discuss the evolution of John's role within AON and the kind of opportunities that he is seeing on the road.

You can find John's previous podcast here.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by Benefit Street Partners and PIMCO. Founded in 2008, Benefit Street Partners – BSP – is Franklin Templeton’s specialised private credit manager with $92 billion in assets under management.

The firm provides a wide range of private credit strategies across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, including direct lending, special situations, commercial real estate debt, infrastructure debt, asset backed finance, structured credit and liquid credit.

PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC) is a premier global investment management firm founded in 1971, specializing in active fixed-income with over $2 trillion in assets under management. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, it offers diversified investment solutions across public and private markets, serving institutional and individual investors worldwide.