Appointments

The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) has named Robert Branagh as its managing director following the retirement of Mike Allen.

Ian Greenwood has been appointed to lead the £46bn Northern Pool, which was set up by the local government pension funds for Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and Merseyside.

Pensions and risk consultancy Hymans Robertson has appointed Alistair Russell-Smith as head of its corporate defined benefit (DB) practice, effective from 1 April.

John Ball has been appointed as the Church of England Pension Board's new chief executive officer (CEO).

Edward Levy has been appointed as a trustee director at Law Debenture in a bid to expand its trustee team.

Sackers has appointed Paige Willis as an associate to boost the expansion of its London-based alternative funding and contingent asset practice.

Darren Philp is set to leave B&CE and The People's Pension this September as he takes up a new role as head of policy at Smart Pension.

Martin Freeman has been hired as head of technology product and development at Smart Pension, to support the 'growing' technology product side of the business.

Cardiff-based financial services business Quantum Advisory has hired three pensions staff to its team, and increased its total number of employees to over 100.

The shadow work and pensions secretary has been forced to stand down amid an investigation over an "employment issue", Labour has announced.