Mike Weston has been appointed as the first chief executive of the Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP). Weston was previously chief investment officer of the Daily Mail General Trust.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Something that allowed me to make things.
What was your favourite subject at school and why?
Physics, because I liked understanding how and why things worked.
What was your first paid role?
My very first paid role was as a paper boy while I was still at school. After university my first real job was as a junior consultant at a specialist technology and materials consultancy.
What led you to a career in the investment space?
I interviewed a couple of stockbroking equity analysts during one of my technology projects in 1989. I loved the discretion, responsibility and variety of their role. Then I found out you could be an analyst/portfolio manager in a fund management business.
What are your priorities for this new role?
There are three: to encourage more UK pension schemes to invest in the first PIP labelled fund which is being managed by Dalmore Capital. To provide more infrastructure investment opportunities for UK pension schemes. To get PIP authorised under the FCA/AIFMD regimes, so we can launch the PIP-managed infrastructure funds.
What is the biggest hurdle for institutional investors at present?
In infrastructure, it is being able to access well-structured investment funds at a fair price. In the wider investment world, it is building asset/liability portfolios that will be resilient to the multiple potential global macro scenarios that are possible at the moment. There are currently just so many geo-econo-political flash points.
If you could make one change to investment legislation/regulation,what would it be?
I would abolish the requirement to regularly mark to market pension scheme assets and liabilities, to encourage more long-term investment thinking.
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