UK – Royal Mail Pension Trustees has appointed Chris Hogg as chief executive following the departure of Gerry Degaute, who announced his retirement from the role.

Hogg, who is currently head of funding at the Royal Mail Pension Trustees board, will start in his new role at the end of May.

Degaute was recently appointed vice-president of the Pensions Management Institute alongside Susan Smith of Pi Consulting.

Hogg joined the board of trustees in 2009, working as part of the investment and funding team.

He was closely involved with the pensions agreement concluded last year, which resulted in the government taking on the liabilities of the Royal Mail Pension Plan.

Before joining the board, Hogg spent more than five years as a pensions consultant at Aon before moving to a similar role at KPMG between 2005 and 2009.

According to Joanna Matthews, chair of the trustee appointed in August last year, Hogg's skills and experience will ensure a "consistently high level of service to the trustee board" and "allow for a seamless transition".

"The trustee board," she added, "would also like to thank Gerry Degaute very much for his 25 years of service to the scheme, a period that has seen many significant developments and changes to the plan, culminating in the pensions agreement last year."

In March last year, the UK proposals to take on the Royal Mail's £4.6bn (€5.4bn) pension deficit received sign-off from the European Commission, with the transfer resulting in the creation of a new, smaller and fully funded pension scheme.

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