18 September 2025 – Changing the system for better outcomes

Join us from 10:00-11:15 BST for an online Community event.

Only members with restricted access (ie. academics, asset owners, government and regulatory, independent advisers/trustees and sponsoring employers) can view this article. Please login or join to view.

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This session focused on the output from our System & Governance Change Group pilot session, where asset owners and advisers came together to explore what we are seeing in the world, and how we can drive meaningful change in our financial system and beyond.

Charlotte O'Leary, CEO, Pensions for Purpose shared the insights, emerging themes and tangible ideas that surfaced during the pilot, as well as invited discussion on where this work could go to next. The session covered how we can activate change through:

  • Narrative – reframing the way we talk about finance to unlock new possibilities.
  • Accounting innovation – rethinking what we measure and value to align with long-term outcomes.
  • Governance transformation – evolving decision-making structures to support systemic resilience.

Participants heard what’s emerging and contributed ideas to shaping future decision-making.

We were delighted to be joined by a panel of speakers from Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Rethinking Capital and System Change Investing.

Following the discussion, we moved to breakout rooms of mixed stakeholders, led by a number of our Community Partners, including Aberdeen Investments, Downing and LCP.

Who was this event for?

This event was open to all our members. If your organisation is yet to join Pensions for Purpose you may attend an event before deciding whether to sign up, so please register for a trial session.

Watch recording here

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Speakers

Tim Manuel, Head of Responsible Investment, Border to Coast Pensions Partnership

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership is a UK-based local government pension scheme (LGPS) pool responsible for managing and overseeing £52bn on behalf of 11 partner funds. Tim leads the Responsible Investment team in delivering meaningful outcomes for partner funds and over one million pension beneficiaries. Tim is passionate about using responsible investment to drive real-world impact while staying closely aligned with the needs of stakeholders.

Before Border to Coast, Tim spent 18 years as a pensions and investment consultant at Aon, and for the last seven years as Head of Responsible Investment.

Andrew Watson, Co-Founder, Rethinking Capital

Andrew has spent 23 years solving the intangibles problem: the economy has shifted to post-industrial, but the rules that govern the economy have not kept up.

Andrew is also one of the creators of the breakthrough innovation normative accounting for intangibles, a rethink of double-entry bookkeeping, which is now becoming known as Accounting for Reality. Having had the insight of upside-down system incentives in 2020, Accounting for Reality is designed to flip the incentives, and create carrot and stick incentives to invest into programmes which increase positive impact and reduce negative impact while internalising externalities.

Andrew has led a one-year programme with the Interpretations Committee of the  International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to secure their  25 April 2024 decision that a commitment to reduce carbon emissions can be recognised as a constructive obligation under the existing IAS 37 – and a third submission to explain how investments purposed to meet the commitment can be recognised as intangible assets under IAS 38

Dr Claudine Perlet, Co-Founder, System Change Investing

Dr Claudine Perlet, lawyer and former executive at Allianz, Goldman Sachs and Freshfields, is a pioneer in the field of transformative change. Her work bridges business transformation and investment innovation — recognising that shifting systems at scale requires alignment across both.

She founded Business Reinvented to support corporate and financial leaders in championing the transition to regenerative, life-aligned ways of doing business. To help shift the market signals that shape corporate behaviour, she also co-founded System Change Investing — a first-of-its-kind responsible investment strategy developed by Frank Dixon. Focused on root causes and systemic change, it rates companies on system change performance and rewards leaders addressing deeper structural flaws.

Previously, Claudine was Global Head of Compliance at Allianz Global Investors and headed the Global COO Office of Allianz. She has lived, worked and studied in Frankfurt, Sydney, London, Hong Kong and Munich, where she is now based. Claudine embodies the blend of profound business expertise with the visionary commitment and know-how for creating regenerative futures.

Breakout room moderators

Toby Rockingham, Sustainable Investment Manager, Aberdeen Investments

Toby joined Aberdeen Investments (then Standard Life Investments) in February 2004 and is a senior member of the UK Institutional Business Development team. The team is responsible for delivering Investment and Pensions solutions to Corporate and Public Pension plans and Insurance companies. Toby’s experience spans 25 years in the industry, with time spent in Fixed Income, Sustainability and Client roles - working with clients across the UK, Europe and USA to build and develop bespoke investment solutions.

Toby is currently working on the project to raise investment for the Aberdeen Climate and Nature Strategy, which will drive investment in Nature Restoration through Scotland’s Nature Investment Partnership.

Bill Manahan, Director of Institutional Solutions, Downing

Bill joined Downing in July 2023 as a Director of Institutional Solutions. He has a wealth of experience in the institutional space – private markets, risk management across fundraising and business development. He holds a degree in Commerce from University College Dublin and has a post graduate diploma in Law from the Department for international Trade (DIT).

Sapna Patel, Principal, LCP

Sapna is a Principal in LCP’s responsible investment team, helping clients address climate risk and manage their stewardship activities. She is part of LCP’s systemic stewardship team, leading LCP’s drive to advocate for the industry taking a more system-wide approach to address the large system-wide financial risks facing asset owners, in particular climate change. She also leads LCP’s flagship report on investment manager’s firmwide responsible investment approaches, including for systemic stewardship.

Host

Charlotte O'Leary, CEO, Pensions for Purpose

As CEO and an Executive Director of Pensions for Purpose, Charlotte oversees the running of the business, develops the growth and innovation strategy, and looks for opportunities to build partnerships to achieve their mission. Charlotte is a member of the Sounding Board for the Social Value Portal, the Advisory Board for the Sororum, the pensions expert group for the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing and a member of the Pensions Equity Group.    

She has over 15 years of experience in asset management, starting in fund analysis and progressing through to institutional business development, and has worked for some well-known institutions, including Jupiter, Pictet and Cambridge Associates. Through these roles, Charlotte has built a knowledge and passion for sustainable investing. She has demonstrated this by co-authoring a paper with the Society for Pension Professionals on social impact investing, and speaking on topics such as fee and service transparency at Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) and Transparency Taskforce events. She worked in partnership with the Impact Investing Institute to develop the Impact Investing Principles for Pensions.  

Pensions for Purpose

Pensions for Purpose exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. Our aim is to empower pension funds to seek positive impact opportunities and mitigate negative impact risks.

Our Community allows members to learn from leaders in the impact investment industry. We provide a trusted environment to interact, collaborate and share knowledge. Members engage in a programme of activity to shape their strategy in ESG, sustainable and impact investments.

For more information, please email the Membership Manager.