Patrick Heath-Lay, the Chief Executive Officer of Crawley-based People’s Partnership, the provider of People’s Pension, has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours.
He has been recognised for services to the pensions industry, in which he has worked for more than four decades. Last year he celebrated 40 years at People’s Partnership, a not-for-profit organisation, which he joined as a 16-year-old school leaver in August 1985, first working in the post room.
The father-of-two, who lives in West Sussex, rose through the ranks, training as an accountant before running multiple areas of the business including Finance, Marketing, and Business Development. He has served as CEO for 13 years and in 2012, he established and oversaw the launch of People’s Pension, which has since grown to manage over £40 billion of savings for more than seven million members and is now the biggest commercial master trust pension scheme in the UK.
Since then, People’s Partnership, which was founded in 1942 as B&CE, has grown from approximately 200 colleagues to more than 1,000 and is now one of Crawley’s largest employers.
On his honour Patrick said:
“It’s really humbling to be recognised in this way and is not something I ever expected to happen when I set out in the world of work as a teenager straight from school more than 40 years ago.
“It’s an honour to lead such a wonderful, purpose driven organisation, making a real difference to pension saving in the UK and which has allowed me to develop and grow as a person.
“This recognition is a wonderful surprise and would not have been possible without my family, friends and colleagues who have supported me throughout my career at a company that has given me so much. I have been lucky enough to be able to work with some of the most talented and driven people who share a passion for the purpose of our organisation and who have helped establish People’s Pension as a major player in the pensions industry. It’s an organisation that has made a genuine difference to the futures of millions of hardworking people across the UK.
“I am very grateful for everything they have given to People’s Partnership in making the organisation what it is today.”
Notes to Editor:
- People’s Partnership is a business without shareholders; it reinvests its profits with the aim to help customers and achieve better financial outcomes for everyone. It provides People’s Pension, the largest commercial master trust in the UK based on members, serving seven million pension savers across the UK and managing £40bn in assets.
This assessment is determined by membership size. People’s Pension currently has more than seven million members, which, according to publicly available industry data, exceeds the membership of any other commercial master trust.