New boss appointed for Chamber Pension Plan

Chamber Pension Plan’s new Senior Manager of Pensions, Saskia Stevenson, and Randall Fisher, previous Director of Operations at Chamber Pension Plan

(CNS): The not-for-profit Chamber Pension Plan, which has around 16,000 people enrolled in the plan, has a new senior manager of pensions. Saskia Stevenson was appointed following the retirement of Randall Fisher from the post of director of operations. She has spent the last twelve years involved with Chamber plan and she will now be responsible for overseeing all day-to-day activities of the pension administration, according to a release from the CPP.

“Randall spent four years as Chamber Pension’s Director of Operations, and we will miss him,” said Stevenson. “We wish him all the best for a wonderful retirement, and we sincerely thank him for all of his hard work and fantastic knowledge here at Chamber Pension. I have worked with Chamber Pension since 2006, and I am eager to make meaningful contributions in my new role while staying true to Chamber Pension’s mission – to be a pension plan for the people, by the people.”

Board of Trustees chairperson, Paul Schreiner, said, “It is a fond farewell that we give to Randall, and a very warm welcome to Saskia. Randy was a valuable asset over the last three years, and the Board has sincerest gratitude for his hard work. We are also delighted to have Saskia’s strong educational background and in-depth pension knowledge.”

The pension plan is one of several private sector providers to workers in Cayman as part of the mandatory regime, which has faced considerable criticism. The compulsory pension regime remains problematic, with several employers dodging their responsibility to pay and people paying in far too little. Critics have also raised concerns about many of the local plans’ poor management and under-performance. The lack of transparency and choice for workers is also an issue.

During Finance Committee hearings in November last year the premier took aim at the entire private sector pension regime and said that Cayman should have created a national government plan, but did not because of pressure from the Chamber. Alden McLaughlin said he believed the public service pension scheme was far better than anything on offer in the private sector and government had been sold a bag of goods that did not meet the community’s needs, with “grossly inadequate” provision.