Christopher Wheeler

Christopher joined BESTrustees in 2016 and is an experienced international adviser who held Finance Director and HR Director roles in the UK and overseas.

His involvement with pensions started 30 years ago when he audited Pension Funds and has subsequently included, for example, the conversion of DB to DC arrangements, the oversight of pensions in acquisitions and disposals and the leadership of pension negotiations with Unions, employees and other external political, regulatory and trade related bodies.

Christopher works with 12 pension schemes ranging in size from £15m – £12bn and including open DB arrangements, hybrid Schemes, sectionalised Schemes and those with a material number of merged arrangements. He has broad UK and international pensions related experience gained from senior management roles in finance and risk, HR, international financial services and mergers and acquisitions.

Before joining BESTrustees, Christopher enjoyed a career of over 30 years culminating in 23 years at Standard Chartered Bank where he was a member of the Group Pensions Risk Committee overseeing all pensions arrangements across over 70 countries including the UK Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution schemes – where he is also a Trustee Director. Before that, he was a Senior Manager in the Finance and Manufacturing division of Arthur Andersen – where client work included Pension Fund Administrators and Investment Advisors as well as Pension Funds.

Christopher is an accredited professional trustee with the APPT, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.  He was also a Senior Advisor to the Pensions Regulator for 2 years with a focus on the establishment of Master Trust regulations.

Specialist areas: Sole Trusteeship; Restructuring; and Master Trusts.