FUTURE
CONFERENCES
KEY TEAM
Carla Charlton
Conference Manager
FULL BIO
Liz Doughty
Conference Director
FULL BIO
Rob Walker
Office Manager
FULL BIO
Suzanne Gordon-Brown
Director of Sales and Marketing
FULL BIO
Trevor Cook
Founder and Managing Director
FULL BIO
Sue Golton
Conference Co-ordinator
FULL BIO
Fred Jaffe
Executive Director
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Jane Rae
Chief Operating Officer
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Liz Doughty
Conference Director
Liz joined the company in 2012 as Special Projects Director, a wide ranging role which includes developing the international SPS conferences and introducing new business initiatives across both SPS Conferences and its sister company, the European Pension Fund Investment Forum.
Liz has over 25 years experience in conferences, publishing and business to business media particularly within the financial and legal industries.
She started her career at Sweet & Maxwell legal publishers before joining Kluwer publications where she was responsible for pensions and benefits publications. She then joined IBC Conferences (later the Informa group) where she became Conference Director. In 2006 she moved to Informa’s newly acquired IIR conference group and whilst there she was responsible for managing and developing some of the team’s largest events.
Liz is a law graduate from Manchester University and also holds a post-graduate diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Trevor Cook
Founder and Managing Director
Trevor is the founder and Managing Director of the pension consultant Specialist Pension Services Ltd (SPS) and its conference organising division: SPS Conferences.
In addition he is a co-founding Executive Director of the European Pension Fund Investment Forum (EPFIF) and a Director of the Pension Investment Academy. In his position with SPS, the EPFIF and PIA, Trevor organises or oversees the programmes of over 65 UK and international events a year. These include the new series of PIA seminars held in conjunction with Westminster Business School. Conferences and Seminars now cover every aspect of Pension Fund Administration and Investment Mangement for both DB and DC Pension Schemes.
Over the last few years Trevor has arranged and appeared at seminars and conferences from as far south as Cape Town in South Africa to as far north as Helsinki in Finland although the majority of SPS conferences are held in the UK in London. Trevor worked in senior pensions administration positions for both insurance companies and private company pension schemes before starting his own company and providing consultancy through Specialist Pension Services in November 1992. He organised the first SPS conference in the spring of 1993, whilst EPFIF Forums started in London in the Autumn of 1994.
Trevor took over and restarted the PIA seminars as recently as September 2010. Trevor has a First-Class Honours Mathematics degree from the University of Newcastle and is a fellow of the Pensions Management Institute. He is involved with a number of charities including a period of five years as Chair of the Hertfordshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre.
Fred Jaffe
Executive Director
Fred is an Executive Director of Specialist Pension Services Ltd and its subsidiary SPS Conferences, as well as Co-founder and Executive Director of SPS’ sister company, The European Pension Fund Investment Forum.
Fred has worked in the fields of investment, corporate finance, private equity, law and government. His career started in Washington, first with the US Congress as a Senior Legislative Aide and then with the US Government’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as Trial Counsel. Fred then moved to New York first with Standard & Poor’s as Vice President Corporate Finance (Bond analyst) and then with Jefferies & Co. (an investment banking firm) as Senior Vice President, International Business Development. He transferred to the Jefferies’ London office and subsequently worked as an advisor to several private equity firms.
Carla Charlton
Conference Manager
Carla is a Conference Manager at SPS Conferences. Her role is primarily to liaise with speakers and to manage the receipt and production of conference documentation. In addition, she manages the on-site running of each event, including any pre-conference events.
After graduating with a BA (Hons) Hotel Business Management from BCFTCS, Birmingham, Carla went on to work for an Expotel hotel reservations agency. A year later she joined Risk Waters running financial conferences and exhibitions mainly in the US. Carla managed the logistics for UK events in the education, funding and sports industry for Electricword plc for over 6 years. She joined SPS conferences in April 2007.
Suzanne Gordon-Brown
Director of Sales and Marketing
Suzanne is Director of Sales and Marketing at SPS Conferences, responsible for recruiting sponsors and for putting the annual programme of institutional investment conferences together.
After graduating with a BSc Honours degree in Computer Studies, Suzanne began her City of London career as a business systems analyst in the technology department of County NatWest Investment Management. A chance conversation at a golf day for clients in the early 1990’s led to her transferring internally to a direct sales role with responsibility for UK Institutional Pension Funds. By the time of the firm’s merger with Gartmore (1996) she was in the role of Business Development Director covering both UK institutional sales and consultant relations.
In 1998 Suzanne moved to Morgan Stanley Investment Management in London in a UK Institutional Sales and consultant relations role but shortly added Southern African coverage to her mandate with responsibility in the region for institutional sales, consultant relations and client service. In 2000, she moved with her husband to New York City and consequently transferred to Morgan Stanley’s Public Fund team with responsibility for client service of the largest clients. She also organised a client conference for the team but left at the end of the 2001 for a career break following the birth of her first child, in NYC in the week of 9/11.
Suzanne moved back to the UK with her family in 2005 and joined SPS Conferences shortly thereafter.
Sue Golton
Conference Co-ordinator
Sue is Conference Co-ordinator at SPS Conferences. Her responsibilities include ensuring the website is kept up-to-date, organising the mailing of conference invitations, logging replies and ensuring database information is updated. She also works with the Conference Manager to produce the conference documentation.
Media Partners
SPS conferences is a division of Specialist Pension Services Limited
Registered Address: Northside House, Mount Pleasant, Barnet, Herts, EN4 9EE
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