We are delighted to announce that Dianne Binns has joined MHM as a client director. Dianne brings with her a wealth of industry experience, particularly in the investment arena. She will enhance our scheme trusteeship service with her investment expertise and will also work in an advisory role for new and existing clients. Read more about Dianne, her career and her life away from the office in her question and answer session with journalist Gideon Fireman.
What took you into a career in pensions?
I studied physics and maths at the University of Glasgow and after graduating, loved the idea of working with numbers to solve problems in the financial industry. I also wanted to use the problem-solving skills I had developed in my physics studies.
I started my career in London as an actuarial trainee, honing my pensions numeracy skills before becoming an investment consultant where my problem-solving skills helped me find practical solutions that worked for my clients.
I think the combination of numeracy and problem-solving and also being able to explain things simply was a fantastic legacy of my theoretical physics degree.
After 15 years in consultancy, you moved into investment management, what prompted the change?
I was working in an actuarial and investment environment and always thinking about liabilities and assets in a slightly sterile environment. What I didn’t get to see was what physically happened to the assets once I’d given my investment advice so I decided to get my hands dirty!
Moving over to work in investment management meant I could see what happened before, during and after the implementation of a change of assets. I found that it was a lot more complicated than I realised and this gave me a much better understanding of the timelines and processes (and people!) involved when money moves around the financial markets.
You then took yourself off in a completely different career direction and became a teacher, why?
I’d been in the world of pensions and investment for 22 years by this time and had got involved with mentoring high school students and graduates. As I did more mentoring and recruitment at grass roots level, I found myself wanting to make things easier for young people, especially women and less privileged young people, to get into STEM and financial careers. Teaching seemed the obvious answer.
I retrained as a science and physics teacher during COVID and was offered a post in York at a large comprehensive school. I loved re-learning the detail of the A-level physics course and started getting involved in providing the guidance and support that is an essential part of teaching. And of course, my love of problem-solving soon kicked in.
After four years, I found myself regretfully feeling that I had done all I could do in an environment that wasn’t always as flexible as it could be. With a new government in place and an increased scrutiny on pensions and pensions education, I was encouraged to look again at investment and pensions. Through contacts, I was introduced to David Hodgson and became convinced that pension trusteeships in particular, ticked all the boxes for me – problem solving, numbers and relationship building. So here I am now, starting at MHM and hopefully adding to the knowledge and insight that the company clearly offers through its broad range of services.
How will MHM’s clients benefit from your skills and experience?
In my roles providing actuarial and investment advice, I’ve come across a variety of pension schemes with a broad range of funding levels, investment strategies and levels of expertise. I also have experience in dealing with different advisers and providers from working in fund management. I expect to use this awareness of pension schemes to help our clients achieve their objectives.
Clients can also call on my specialist knowledge of liability driven investment (LDI) strategies which are increasingly commonplace in pension schemes but may be not as well understood as they could be (as seen during Liz Truss’ mini budget when schemes had to scramble to find liquidity to top up their leveraged LDI pots).
The challenge here, which I love, is making it as simple as possible for our clients – who are not all massive multinational businesses – to understand and implement the types of cost-effective solutions that the bigger schemes and employers currently benefit from, for example introducing salary sacrifice to their workplace pension schemes.
A large part of what I can also bring comes from my time as a teacher and that is communication. I’m a great believer in the importance of good communication when building and maintaining relationships. As a teacher, I honed my skills in the art of explaining complex ideas in a simple way to a range of abilities as well as to a range of motivations – I believe this skill will be a huge asset in my new role.
What are you looking forward to most, working at MHM?
There are two things I am looking forward to and they’re linked. The first is participating in the decision-making experience as a trustee (rather than just giving advice and leaving others to decide what to do).
The second is being able to do this in the special collegiate environment that I could see exists at MHM with its feeling of a big family – literally in MHM’s case with David, Fiona and Harriet working together. After working for a few big companies, it’s exciting to work somewhere where everyone gets a say and decisions can be made quickly. I can build a business case regarding a client, have a chat with my colleagues and then get on with it – I love that.
Finally, what’s life like for you away from the office?
I’m married, have two stepsons and three cats and live in the beautiful and historic city of York. I love yoga, especially hot yoga, which is not as saucy as it sounds but is normal yoga done in a hot temperature and I also run when I can.
Before I discovered my love of physics, I was desperate to go to art school, which is the polar opposite in many ways. I still like sketching and going to art galleries; York’s gallery is great and I recently saw the Monet on loan from the National Gallery there. Like many people, I also love travelling and visiting different cities. I love seeing how the light and the buildings are different in different cities – it’s the art thing, I guess but there’s also an analytical side to it. See, when it comes down to it, it’s all about numbers.
You can contact Dianne by email to Dianne.binns@sandccarsalesharrogate.co.uk or call 07562 956762.
Dianne was in conversation with the word scientist Gideon Fireman, who can be contacted at gjfireman@hotmail.co.uk for writing and editing work.
