Insider - Profile: Frank Johnson, the FD keeping rail pensions on track - The engine driver. The pensions crisis is rarely out of the headlines and as FD of one of the UK's largest schemes, Frank Johnson, has plenty to think about. He tells Rachel Fielding about managing a [pounds sterling]16bn fund and his career in the rail industry. (15-DEC-05) Accountancy Age

AccessMyLibrary : Search Information that Libraries Trust

AccessMyLibrary Browse A Accountancy Age DEC-05 Insider - Profile: Frank Johnson, the FD keeping rail pensions on track - The engine driver. The pensions crisis is rarely out of the headlines and as FD of one of the UK's largest schemes, Frank Johnson, has plenty to think about. He tells Rachel Fielding about managing a [pounds sterling]16bn fund and his career in the rail industry.

Insider - Profile: Frank Johnson, the FD keeping rail pensions on track - The engine driver. The pensions crisis is rarely out of the headlines and as FD of one of the UK's largest schemes, Frank Johnson, has plenty to think about. He tells Rachel Fielding about managing a [pounds sterling]16bn fund and his career in the rail industry.

Publication: Accountancy Age

Publication Date: 15-DEC-05

How to access the full article: Free access to all articles is available courtesy of your local library. To access the full article click the "See the full article" button below. You will need your US library barcode or password.

Bookmark this article

As the debate over the UK's pensions crisis reached a crescendo with last month's publication of the long-awaited Turner Report, Frank Johnson had other things on his mind.

As the finance director of Railpen Investments, the investment arm of the Railways Pension Scheme, it's his organisation's job to advise on the trusteeship of one of the largest and most complicated pension schemes in the country. The scheme has assets of around [pounds sterling]16bn and a membership exceeding 350,000. In pensions terms, it's a force to be reckoned with.

The RPS was created to coincide with privatisation in 1994. 'When the railway industry was fragmented under privatisation, the government wanted to keep a central trustee for members of the railway companies so people could move around without it affecting their pensions,' Johnson explains.

As the sixth largest scheme in the UK, any decisions the company makes - particularly ones regarding radical changes in investment strategy - tend to hit the headlines. And with fund managers all vying for a slice of the Railpen pie, you can imagine that Johnson and his fellow directors will be on quite a few Christmas card lists this year.

'When we took the decision to invest in hedge funds, it made the Financial Times and Radio 4. For a long time we've been seen as a trendsetter. But the safekeeping of our [pounds sterling]16bn assets is paramount,' he says. 'Increasingly we're looking at growing our global exposure, and increasing our overseas investments from 55% to 70% of our equity fund over the...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.