IPE AWARDS – Sally Bridgeland, chief executive of BP's £15bn (€17.5bn) UK pension fund, has been confirmed as one of the speakers at November's IPE Awards in the Netherlands.

Bridgeland, who joined one of the country's largest pension funds in 2007, will offer her views on the hurdles facing the industry and what future challenges could arise.

As chief executive of BP Pension Trustees, she has spent the past six years implementing the fund's strategy and advising its trustee board on related matters, as well as overseeing the in-house investment and administration teams.

A Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, Bridgeland put her mathematics degree from Imperial College, London, to good use over two decades working at consultancies including Bacon & Woodrow and, eventually, Hewitt Associates.

During her time at Bacon & Woodrow, she worked as a scheme actuary and in investment research, an area she went on to lead.

Despite overseeing one of the largest defined benefit funds in the country, she also has experience with defined contribution arrangements.

She has previously spoken out on the importance of rigorous governance and said the structure in place at BP had helped the fund weather the financial crisis.

She also told the IPE Awards Seminar in 2009: "This is not encouraging short-termism – if you tell them every week what is going on, they don't get caught up in the quarterly figures. They are more relaxed and see the swings in the markets."

With the news of her involvement in the 2013 IPE Awards, she joins previously announced speaker Hans Blix, UN chief weapons inspector in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq War.

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