Three new permanent Executive Directors have been appointed to the Board of The Pensions Regulator (TPR) following formal approval from the Minister for Pensions, Emma Reynolds.
The appointees are:
- Nina Blackett, Executive Director of Strategy, Policy and Analysis
- Gaucho Rasmussen, Executive Director of Regulatory Compliance
- Neil Bull, Executive Director of Market Oversight
They will help accelerate the shift in TPR’s regulatory approach to meet the challenges and opportunities of a changing pensions market – and deliver more for savers.
The appointments follow TPR’s announcement in February of the establishment of three new regulatory functions – Regulatory Compliance, Market Oversight and Strategy, Policy and Analysis – which better align TPR’s structure with its strategic priorities.
TPR Chief Executive Nausicaa Delfas said: “The pensions market is rapidly changing and moving towards fewer, larger schemes, bringing new opportunities and new risks. We are evolving as a regulator to meet these challenges.
“Gaucho, Neil and Nina will each play a critical part in accelerating the shift in our regulatory approach that will help us to protect, enhance and innovate in a changing pensions market, and become a more efficient and effective regulator.”
Nina Blackett has served as both Director of Digital Services and Interim Director of Strategy, Policy and Analysis since joining TPR in September 2023. She brings considerable experience in leading digital transformation in finance, healthcare and education to her new role.
Nina said: “I’m excited to be leading Strategy, Policy and Analysis at TPR at this pivotal moment for pensions in the UK, as the balance shifts from Defined Benefit schemes to Defined Contribution. I look forward to building on the great work already done to evolve TPR with the market.”
Neil Bull, who served as TPR’s Head of Investment before becoming Interim Director of Market Oversight in April 2024, has more than 25 years of experience in the commercial pensions sector, and brings a deep understanding of the pensions market and risk management to the role.
Neil said: “I’m thrilled to be leading TPR’s new Market Oversight directorate at this critical time for the pensions market. I and my talented team are dedicated to enhancing the market to ensure savers get good outcomes. We’ll be engaging with schemes and others in new ways to establish greater strategic market oversight, raise standards of trusteeship and ensure value for money for savers.”
Gaucho Rasmussen is an accomplished regulatory and enforcement leader with extensive experience in organisational change and development. He joins TPR from Amazon where he has been advising on regulatory compliance across Europe. Prior to this Gaucho held positions as director of enforcement at both Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority.
Gaucho said: “I’m delighted to be leading TPR’s Regulatory Compliance directorate at this exciting time, as the regulator designs and implements tangible improvements to protect pensions savers’ interests.”
Notes for editors
- Neil Bull is Executive Director of Market Oversight. Neil joined TPR in 2017 as an Investment Consultant, and then headed up the investment team for two years before becoming the Interim Director of Market Oversight in April 2024. Before joining TPR, Neil worked as an investment consultant and fixed income portfolio manager at IBM Retirement Funds EMEA. He is also a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder. Neil has worked in the commercial pensions sector for the best part of three decades and brings a deep understanding of the pensions market and risk management to the role.
- Nina Blackett is Executive Director of Strategy, Policy and Analysis. Nina joined TPR in September 2023, first as Director of Digital Services, and latterly as Interim Executive Director of Strategy, Policy and Analysis. Before joining TPR, Nina was a member of the Board and Director of Digital Transformation at Skills for Care, the national body for developing the social care workforce. Here, she led digital policy and influencing work as well as developing a new agile innovation model for social care interventions and led, restructured and grew multi-disciplinary work to deliver good outcomes. Before that she was Interim Chief of Development at the Money and Pension Service - rebuilding and rebooting the digital team following a period of change and the launch of the new flagship product, MoneyHelper. Nina is a PhD qualified social scientist as well as a digital and design professional. Nina has extensive experience leading the design and development of evidence-based interventions using multi-disciplinary teams in finance, healthcare and education across private, public and third sectors.
- Gaucho Rasmussen joined TPR in October 2024 as Executive Director of Regulatory Compliance. Gaucho is an established regulatory and enforcement leader with extensive experience from across private legal practice, in-house, regulators and the EU judiciary. Gaucho joins us from Amazon where he has been legal director and associate general counsel, advising on regulatory compliance issues across Europe. Before his role at Amazon, Gaucho headed up Ofcom's enforcement function from 2016 until 2022, delivering robust, effective and timely enforcement outcomes across a wide and strategic portfolio of responsibilities. While at Ofcom, Gaucho was an effective driver of organisational change and development, establishing new organisational functions from scratch or reforming existing functions to ensure they met current and future organisational strategic needs. This built on his time as Enforcement Director at the Competition and Markets Authority, and Senior Legal and Policy Advisor at the Bank of England where he was the senior decision-maker across a broad range of regulatory issues.
Images of Gaucho, Nina and Neil can be downloaded from our media library page.
TPR is the regulator of work-based pension schemes in the UK. Our statutory objectives are to:
- protect members’ benefits
- reduce the risk of calls on the Pension Protection Fund
- promote, and improve understanding of, the good administration of work-based pension schemes
- maximise employer compliance with automatic enrolment duties
- minimise any adverse impact on the sustainable growth of an employer (in relation to the exercise of the regulator’s functions under Part 3 of the Pensions Act 2004 only)
