Ruston Smith makes a smart move – to Smart Pension

Ruston Smith is set to join Smart Pension's board as a non-executive director (NED) and will also chair its newly-formed International Advisory Board.

He will step down from his role as trustee director at The People's Pension at the end of this month, after a two year term.

Last year Ruston co-chaired the Automatic Enrolment Advisory Board for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), leading on engagement, an issue that is a key point of differentiation in Smart Pension's long-term strategy.

He is also leading an industry initiative to introduce a pioneering 'simpler annual statement', which all providers and schemes would be encouraged to adopt using the same consistent language and numbers - making it easier for savers to better understand their statements.

Ruston said:  "This is a great opportunity to join a highly agile and innovative organisation with ambitious plans and huge potential that embraces technology to create the very best customer proposition"

"To be able to contribute to the future strategic direction of the business both in the UK but, particularly internationally, with the customer as the heart of everything they do is very exciting and appealing."

Andrew Evans, Smart Pension CEO and co-founder, said: "Ruston's impressive experience at every level of trusteeship and governance will be invaluable as we move forward into the next phase of growth not just here in the UK, but with a view to export our pension technology to the rest of the world. His international experience, creative flair and passion for simple and compelling communication and engagement will be an integral part of our strategy."

His appointment follows that of Jamie Fiveash, Smart Pension's COO, who joined the firm in February from The People's Pension and Paul Budgen, NEST's former director of business development, who joined the senior team in March.

Smart Pension now runs workplace pensions for 90,000 employers and just under half a million members.

The firm's award-winning, highly automated platform harnesses time-saving applications to allow fast, seamless auto enrolment with a sign-up and onboarding process that takes just a few minutes from start to finish. It is free to employers and has an AMC-only charging structure for members that is transparent with no upfront or hidden costs.

It is MAF-accredited and has been awarded a 5-star Defaqto rating. It has an average score of 4.4 out of 5 in Google reviews from its customers.