Interview | Mike O’Donnell
“You don’t keep 32 local authorities happy by doing the same thing for everybody.”
On paper Mike O’Donnell has the toughest job in the pensions industry. The chief executive of London CIV tells portfolio institutional about how he is managing the needs of 32 schemes.
You were appointed chief executive of Lon- don CIV in March. How have the first few months been? Busy. We have been getting out and about meeting all our partner funds, who are both our shareholders and investors. Assets from 31 boroughs, plus the City of London, are in the pool. Having 32 shareholders is one of our big- gest challenges. The other pools have between three and 12 partner funds, which is slightly more manageable.
It adds to the challenge, but also the oppor- tunity. Getting 32 London Local Authorities (LLA) to work together has some real potential benefits.
How do you keep 32 local authorities happy?
You don’t keep 32 local authorities happy by doing the same thing for everybody. You need to recognise that they have different positions and different starting points. It is about having a continuous conversation. What you want to avoid is ending up in a place where you have 32 different models. We want them to work together to get a bit of convergence, a bit of collaboration between them. That is important. I was hired because I am from that world. I was corporate finance director for the Lon- don Borough of Camden for 13 years, so I know all the key players across London’s local government finance world. I would like to think I have good relation- ships with and I’m respected by them. That makes that bit of the job easier for me because I understand what their drivers are
18 | portfolio institutional | June–July 2019 | issue 85
and what their competing pressures are. One of the challenges, of course, is that any LLA finance director is probably able to give no more than 10% of his or her time, if that, to worrying about the pension fund because they have a long list of other significant challenges to worry about.
What was at the top of your to do list when you took on this role?
There were three things. One is to build the team here. We have a few vacancies and have just appointed Mark Thompson as the pool’s permanent chief investment officer (more on page 10). He starts in early Sep- tember which then completes the top team. Mike Pratten, who also has years of experi- ence in the industry, is holding the role on an interim basis to bolster the team in the
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