Judging Panel 2025
Rob Barrett, Pensions and investment expert
Mohsin Harhara, Head of Pensions, Skanska
Deirdre Horan, Leading Reward & Benefits, PTSB
Emer Kirk, CEO, Financial Planning Standards Board Ireland DAC
Rickard Mills, Non-Executive Director and Pension Fund Trustee
John O'Connell, Owner, Trident Consulting
Frank O’Riordan, Independent Director and Pension Trustee
Fionán O'Sullivan, Director - Employee Benefit Solutions, Trust Matters
James Skehan, Independent Professional Trustee
Rob Barrett, Pensions and investment expert
Rob started his career as an assistant portfolio manager at Hill Samuel Investment Management. During his career, he worked at SSgA, JP Morgan, AXA Rosenberg and more recently Invesco and Lazard Asset Management. He is highly regarded in the European and UK pensions and asset management arenas and has served as a judge of the European Pensions Awards for many years. Rob recently retired from asset management, and is now enjoying helping out at local charities, walking and to his amazement, gardening!
Mohsin Harhara, Head of Pensions, Skanska
Mohsin is the head of pensions at Skanska and a director, sitting on a number of the UK pension schemes trustee boards and sub-committees, and the DC governance committee. He was previously the head of pensions at Evelyn Partners and head of pensions at Mott MacDonald, where he was responsible for pension strategy and overall management of the pension schemes including governance matters in the UK and Ireland. Prior to this, he has held pension and employee benefits consultancy roles with various advisory firms which include WTW and PwC, advising companies ranging from SMEs to FTSE100s, helping them with their strategic plans and managing various projects in areas such as DB liability and risk management, auto-enrolment, and pension scheme and benefit design.
Deirdre Horan, Leading Reward & Benefits, PTSB
Dee has worked in the pensions and employee benefits industry since 1998 and currently leads Reward and Benefit in PTSB. She leads a team which is responsible for designing, delivering, managing and evolving the employee reward and benefit offering in an ever-changing and dynamic marketplace. Previously, Dee was head of reward and benefits in Tesco and has also worked as a pension consultant in Willis Towers Watson where she supported trustees and employers from a compliance, governance and communication perspective. As corporate pension manager in Aviva, she partnered with financial brokers and corporate clients, tailoring the pension service proposition to meet their needs and those of their members. Dee’s relevant qualifications include a Degree in Insurance and French from the University of Limerick, being a Qualified Financial Advisor and a Qualified Pension Trustee.
Emer Kirk, CEO, Financial Planning Standards Board Ireland DAC
As CEO of the Financial Planning Standards Board Ireland, Emer leads the organisation responsible for the prestigious CFP® professional designation in Ireland, while also driving the promotion of elevated standards in personal financial planning. With an extensive background in the industry spanning two decades, Emer previously held a senior position at a wealth management firm, specialising in delivering financial planning advice to private clients in the crucial stages of approaching and navigating retirement. With almost 20 years’ experience in the pensions industry, she has a strong client focus and a goals-based retirement planning bias and is passionate about helping clients make informed financial decisions to achieve their lifestyle aspirations. She is an Associate of the Institute of Taxation, a Qualified Financial Adviser and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). Emer is also co-founder of Connect Women in Pensions, a network that advocates for the significance of retirement planning specifically for women.
Rickard Mills, Non-Executive Director and Pension Fund Trustee
Rickard is a pensions expert with over 20 years of active involvement in the management and oversight of Irish pension schemes. He was recently appointed as a member of The Pensions Council which advises the Minister for Social Protection on matters relating to policy on pensions. He is a non-executive director of Irish Pensions Trust (IPT) and the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF). He is also a non-executive director of European Movement Ireland, where he is a member of both the audit, risk & compliance and the remuneration committees. Rickard’s qualifications include being a Qualified Pension Trustee and a Chartered Accountant and he has over 25 years’ experience at a senior level in the financial services industry. In addition to pensions, his expertise spans a wide range of disciplines including corporate governance, corporate affairs, taxation and structured financing.
John O'Connell, Owner, Trident Consulting
John trained as an actuary gaining experience in many areas before specialising in the pensions field. He has advised Irish pension scheme employers and trustees for over 30 years. During this time, he has worked for large pension providers and multi-national consultancies before founding the specialist pension advisor Trident Consulting in 2006 and corporate trustee Trident Pension Trustees Ltd in 2010. John is an actuary and qualified pension trustee. John specialises in the provision of independent pensions advice to trustees and to both public sector and private sector employers and acts as a trustee to several group pension schemes including chair of the trustees of a large master trust. John is also a director of Pension Team Limited, a firm that provides pension services to public sector employers.
Frank O’Riordan, Independent Director and Pension Trustee
Frank is a Central Bank of Ireland approved fit and proper director. He has almost 40 years of experience in the asset and funds management industry. He has operated at senior levels at both executive and board levels including CEO and chair level. His portfolio of responsibilities include being an independent director, chair and OED of eight ICAVs. He was a trustee of the AIB pension scheme for 10 years and chair of the investment committee, which oversaw the restructuring of the scheme’s assets and the sustained improvement in the fund’s surplus. Frank has also acted as advisor to several boards of financial services companies with assets of over $25 billion. He is a former president of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI) in Ireland and is a director of the Retirement Planning Council of Ireland. He has both primary and post graduate degrees in economics, finance and statistics from both University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.
Fionán O’Sullivan, Director - Employee Benefit Solutions, Trust Matters
Fionán has worked in the corporate pensions & benefits industry since 1995 with vast experience in designing, managing and co-ordinating benefit arrangements for small, medium, and large corporate clients. Fionán went into partnership with Andrew O'Loughlin, CEO of Trust Matters Financial Planning, at the beginning of 2024. As the name suggests, Trust Matters’ approach as a financial service provider is based on establishing long-term, trusted relationships with complete transparency. Trust Matters values openness and honesty in all interactions with its clients, so that mutual trust is the foundation of the relationship. Providing financial peace of mind is Trust Matters’ number one objective. Supporting its clients and taking care of its greatest asset, its people, is its job and it works to ensureits words translate to visible, valuable action. Trust Matters Financial Planning specialises in all aspects of financial planning and employee benefits.
James Skehan, Independent Professional Trustee
James has over 45 years’ experience working in the pensions industry, many of which were in senior positions with insurance companies, indigenous and multi-national brokers, and corporate trustees. He was head of pensions in New Ireland from 2001 to 2019 and was also CEO of general investment trust, New Ireland’s corporate trustee company from 2008 to 2019. Since 2020, he has been acting as an independent professional trustee and advises employers and trustees on pension issues. He is currently working with a number of schemes who are transitioning to master trusts and, in 2022, he oversaw a change in registered administrator for a scheme with over 5,000 members and assets of €300m. He is also a lecturer on LIA’s post graduate diploma in financial planning.
