ESSENTIAL SKILLS FOR PENSION COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Governance structures
Garnet Andrews

Plan management & disclosure
Kenneth E. Burns

Roles & responsibilities
Naveen Kapahi
Tom Ault

Pension funding and plan design
Stephen J. Butterfield

Exploring registered savings plans and registered pension plans: a uniPHARM case study
Deborah Evin-Smith
David Pundick

Becoming an effective trustee: Lessons from the trenches
Roy Stuart

Pension risk
Garnet Andrews

Ongoing issues and special situations
John M. Christie

Greg Hurst is a seasoned and accomplished pension consultant with over 24 years of pension experience. He consults with a wide variety of corporate, union and government clients, financial institutions and legal firms. He has responsibility for clients across Canada with pension assets totalling in excess of $1.5 billion and 20,000 participants. His approach to complex pension matters is very entrepreneurial, creative and innovative. He enjoys a national profile as a commentator on pension issues who is frequently quoted by the national, local and international press, has many published articles to his credit and a long list of speaking engagements.

Deborah Evin-Smith has worked within the distribution/manufacturing industry for over 20 years in both Canada and Australia. Deborah's educational background is in business management, human resources, and food technology. In the 5 years at uniPHARM Deborah's role is the Director, Communications and Human Resources. Deborah believes leadership in business is really about vision, about being courageous; about doing what you believe is the best thing to do for the company and the employees. The decision to convert to an RRSP plan was a win-win for uniPHARM and their employees.

Garnet Andrews is a Director of Investment Management for TELUS Corporation and has been a member of the TELUS Treasury Team since 1993. He is responsible for pension investment management in British Columbia, pension plan financial reporting and the supervision of the internal control and compliance processes of the TELUS sponsored pension plans. He is also a company appointed member of the Board of Trustees of the Telecommunication Workers Pension Plan and is on the board of a number of pension corporations.

Ken is a partner at Lawson Lundell LLP and practices exclusively in the firm's pension and employee benefits law practice group. He advises pension and benefit plan sponsors and administrators on a range of legal and regulatory issues affecting their plans and is frequently involved in negotiating and implementing the pension aspects of corporate transactions. He works with clients' management and pension committees on pension governance matters and maintenance of plan documents and contracts. He also provides legal opinions on legislative interpretation, regulatory matters, surplus issues and trust law questions.

Stephen is a Principal of Towers Perrin providing consulting advice to a variety of clients on HR issues, with particular emphasis on pension related matters, including the design, implementation, funding and administration of pension plans. He is also currently the Chair of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries' Pension Plan Financial Reporting Committee (PPFRC), which is responsible for the development of pension-specific actuarial Standards of Practice in Canada..

Naveen Kapahi is a consulting actuary in the Vancouver office of Hewitt Associates. He has 27 years of experience in actuarial consulting. He consults with clients on the design, financing and administration of pension plans including plans sponsored by public and private-sector employers and trustees of multi-employer, negotiated cost pension plans. He is a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and is member and past chair of the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute Western Region.

Tom Ault is a Consulting Actuary at the Vancouver office of Hewitt Associates. He is a fellow of both The Institutes of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. He has over 7 years of experience working as an actuarial consultant, with assisting of both corporation and the trustees in a day to day running the pension plans, plan resign and funding issues. Tom has spent time working both in Canada and the United Kingdom to raise experience first handed approaches of both legislative and practical that are taking in a running a pension plan.

David Pundick manages Dehoney's retirement & investment planning division, providing consulting and investment guidance to group retirement clients. He also provides employees and retired employees with financial and investment planning assistance. He has been with Dehoney & Associates for 10 years and prior to that was a pension investment marketing representative with a large life insurance company. His focus is on plan design, plan implementation and providing ongoing investment and financial assistance to plan members. He is a Certified Financial Planner, and is experienced with all aspects of retirement planning, from establishing the right type of retirement plan for your organization, to assisting your employees with transitioning to retirement.

Roy Stuart has lead the governance practice in Western Canada for Hewitt Associates out of the Vancouver offices since 1998, and has worked in the pension and benefits industry for over 34 years. Roy specializes in public sector governance work and serves a variety of clients across the western provinces. Roy is a frequent speaker on pension and benefits matters, and teaches a number of Humber College's pension programs, including their trustee development course. Roy has been a member of a number of boards, including the four jointly trusteed boards that govern the BC colleges, public service, municipal and teacher's plans.

John is an independent consulting actuary who provides litigation support to legal counsel and their clients in pension plan matters. He has over 35 years of experience as a consulting actuary. Most of his work involves disputes over pension plan surpluses and deficits, contribution holidays, prudent investment policies and accepted actuarial practice. He assists counsel in identifying and analyzing the key actuarial issues in each matter. He provides expert actuarial evidence for either the plaintiff or the defendant. He also assists in negotiating and implementing out of court settlements. Thanks to modern technologies, he is able to provide his advice to counsel and clients across Canada, from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.