Mercer expands covenant advisory team with further senior hire 

London, 18 January 2023

Mercer has appointed Tom Austin as a Director in its growing UK covenant advisory team headed by Partner, Darren Masters. The new hire is in addition to Kriti Chandnani, Joe Hornsby, Adam D’Souza, Brandy Mukasa and Michael Fenton who all joined in the last year, taking the total size of the team to 15 covering the whole of the UK.

Andrew Ward, Partner and Risk Transfer and DB Journey Planning Leader, commented, “Tom is a great addition to Mercer’s covenant offering bringing a wide range of experience at an exciting time for our business and the covenant sector. Tom will help the team deliver covenant advice to both pension scheme trustees and corporate sponsors across the breadth of our client base and with new opportunities.”

Mr Austin, a qualified accountant with almost two decades of professional services experience, started his career at KPMG, more latterly working at Interpath Advisory. He brings to Mercer a depth of experience of working with trustees and corporates across a range of situations including valuations, advising on the impact of restructuring, transactions, and performance monitoring. Mr Austin’s clients have ranged in size from small owner managed businesses where scheme assets are less than £10 million, to multi-national listed groups with multi-employer schemes that have assets of more than £10 billion. 

Mr Ward added, “This is a further step in developing Mercer’s leading role in the covenant advisory market. Understanding covenant is of crucial importance in scheme valuations, in M&A and more recently in situations previously considered as business as usual. Tom’s knowledge and approach will significantly expand our team’s capabilities, and help clients successfully navigate these issues.”

Commenting on his appointment, Mr Austen said, “Employer covenant is increasingly at the top of the defined benefit pension’s agenda. With an uncertain macroeconomic outlook and further legislative changes coming in 2023 I look forward to working with Mercer’s excellent team, supporting its clients in navigating these challenges.”

ENDS

About Mercer

Mercer believes in building brighter futures by redefining the world of work, reshaping retirement and investment outcomes, and unlocking real health and well-being. Mercer’s approximately 25,000 employees are based in 43 countries and the firm operates in 130 countries. Mercer is a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), the world’s leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people, with 83,000 colleagues and annual revenue of over $20 billion. Through its market-leading businesses including Marsh, Guy Carpenter and Oliver Wyman, Marsh McLennan helps clients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex environment. For more information, visit mercer.com. Follow Mercer on LinkedIn and Twitter.