Carol Young will succeed Bill Galvin later this year as group chief executive officer of Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the largest private pension scheme in the UK by assets.

Most recently working as director of reward and employment at NatWest, Young is expected to begin work at USS in September this year. Galvin, who last year announced his decision to stand down, will continue to lead the organisation until Young starts her role, USS announced.

Young has been with NatWest since 2014. She spent almost five years prior to that as head of pensions for Heineken UK, and worked as an investment consultant for Mercer between 2000 and 2009.

Throughout her career, Young has led the development and delivery of all aspects of defined benefit pension strategy – incorporating funding, investment, capital and accounting treatment, regulatory engagement, and benefit design.

In her roles at NatWest, Young led on all aspects of the bank’s reward and HR policies and governance, benefit programmes and pension obligations worldwide (for around 60,000 staff), and regularly engaged with shareholders, regulators, employee representatives and government.

She is a non-executive director of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA).

“It’s an exciting time to get involved, with important work ahead of us”, she said. ”I want USS to remain a great place to work for our colleagues, where we keep driving good outcomes for our members and employers and provide excellent support to our boards.”

Kate Barker, chair of the USS board who led the search for Galvin’s successor, said: “Bill is a very hard act to follow, but I have every confidence that USS will continue to thrive under Carol who was the stand-out candidate in an outstanding set of applicants.”

She added: “Carol has a career-long interest in pension policy, is held in high regard across the pension sector, and brings a relatively unique mix of skills to the role: a proven pensions and HR executive who is also a CFA charter holder and a former investment consultant.”

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