The Board

Chris Hitchen
Chair
Chris has many years of experience as an actuary, chief investment officer, chief executive officer and more recently as a non-executive. In his role as chief executive officer, Chris transformed RPMI Railpen, the asset manager for the Railways Pension Scheme into a very successful asset management company. His non-executive roles are as a board member of the International Centre of Pensions Management, Chair of the Master Trust committee under the auspices of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, and Board Member of the Investor Forum.

Rachel Elwell
Chief Executive Officer
Rachel joined Border to Coast with over twenty years’ experience of working in pensions and institutional investment, both as a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and latterly at Royal London. In this role she was responsible for both Royal London’s own pension arrangements and for investment strategy and oversight of internal and external management of its insurance assets totalling £80 billion. Rachel is a Cambridge maths graduate and qualified actuary.

Fiona Miller
Chief Operating Officer
Fiona joined Border to Coast from Cumbria County Council where she managed the £2.4bn Local Government Pension Scheme, as well as the treasury, accounting and insurance functions. Fiona has more than 25 years’ experience in finance across the public and private sectors and has been the driving force behind shaping the Border to Coast response to the Government’s pooling agenda over the last two years. Recent recognition awards include the IPE Gold Personal Achievement Award and inclusion in the 100 Most Influential Women in Finance in the EMEA region, both for her work on LGPS pooling.

Kate Guthrie
Non-Executive Director
Kate is the Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee.
Kate has many years’ experience as a human resources professional and is currently Group Human Resources Director for Virgin Money UK PLC. Her background has been in managing mergers and acquisitions, culture change, talent and development, employee relations and performance management. She has extensive experience of remuneration in financial services and is experienced in working in highly regulated environments. In the past she has worked for a number of organisations including Novartis, Diageo, Lloyds Banking Group and Marks and Spencer. Since 2014 Kate has been a Trustee of Action for Children.

Tanya Castell
Non-Executive Director
Tanya is the Chair of the Board Risk Committee and is a member of both the Audit and the Remuneration & Nomination committees.
Having spent most of her career at JP Morgan and UBS, Tanya is a former senior global banking executive with expertise in corporate governance, risk management and regulation. Tanya’s non-executive board roles include Handelsbanken plc and the platform businesses (for independent financial advisors) of Standard Life Savings and Elevate Portfolio Services. She has previously chaired the Quality Assurance Scheme for the Institute of Faculty of Actuaries, and has been a pension trustee (for the defined contribution scheme of HBOS and defined benefit scheme at UBS). She is a trustee at Changing the Chemistry, a charity she founded to promote diversity of thought in the boardroom, for which she received an MBE. She also sits on the FCA’s regulatory decisions committee.

Andrew November
Non-Executive Director
Andrew November is the Chair of Audit Committee and a member of the Board Risk Committee.
He has spent over 25 years in asset management, most recently as the Global Chief Operating Officer, Distribution at Aberdeen Standard Investments. He also served as the Chief Investment Officer for Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. He holds a MSc in Applied Economics from University of California at Santa Cruz, USA and a BA in Chinese and Economics from University of Leeds.

Anne Walsh
Non-Executive Director
Anne is a member of the Board Audit Committee.
Anne is a councillor on South Tyneside Council, having first being elected in 2008. She is the Vice Chair of the Tyne and Wear Pension Fund and a Governor on two school governing bodies in South Shields.

John Holtby
Non-Executive Director
John Holtby is a member of Remuneration and Nomination Committee.
John is a councillor in East Riding of Yorkshire Council and is the vice-chair of the East Riding Pension Fund. He is an arable and livestock farmer on the farm where his family has farmed since 1890. He has an MA (Hons) in Land Economy from Magdalene College, Cambridge.