interactive investor appoints new Head of Pensions and Savings

Becky O’Connor joins the company from mutual insurance group Royal London.

interactive investor, the UK’s second-largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, has hired Becky O’Connor as Head of Pensions and Savings.

Becky has joined from mutual insurance group Royal London, where she was personal finance specialist.

She joins interactive investor in this newly created role after a time of rapid growth for the business, which, most recently, acquired the Share Centre earlier this year. Becky will lead ii’s educational programme about pensions and savings, campaign on pensions and savings policy issues and help shape the debate about the UK’s retirement landscape.

Becky says: “I’m delighted to join interactive investor at an exciting time for the business and for the industry, as it continues to adapt to the realities of auto-enrolment and the shift towards defined contribution.

“Pensions play a vital role in all our lives from the moment we enter adulthood, but they are often poorly understood and rarely get a second thought until workers are close to retirement. If we are going to avert a retirement crisis, this needs to change, and the strain of managing finances day-to-day has taken an even greater toll during the pandemic.

“I want to encourage people to be curious about their life savings pot much earlier in their working lives and to take pride in looking after their financial future. The growing focus on green and ethical pensions is an especially promising development that will help people to engage with their pensions as investments in the real world and take greater control of their money.”

Moira O’Neill, Head of Personal Finance, interactive investor, says: “We are committed to helping our customers get the most out of their retirement savings and we are thrilled to welcome Becky, who we have long admired. Becky has always championed important consumer issues, and she has done more than most to lift the lid on ethical investing – an issue close to our heart. We need strong communicators like Becky to engage and inspire consumers to take control of their financial future.

“Too many people worry about how they will afford retirement. With a surge in younger investors, who clearly realise that now is that rainy day they should have been saving for, it’s time to engage with more people, at every step of their retirement journey.”

Becky (pictured above), a former award-winning finance and business journalist for The Times, co-founded the ethical personal finance website Good With Money in 2015 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2018 in recognition of her contribution to ethical finance. She sits on the ethical advisory committee for Castlefield Investment Management and is a trustee of the UK Mortgage Prisoners charity.