Ground-breaking pensions analytics company cements IT leadership with three new directorships

RiskFirst Analytics (PFA) has appointed an IT Director and two Product Development Directors – all of whom are instrumental in developing PFA’s web-based platform PFaroe. Launched in November 2009, PFaroe allows DB pensions trustees and sponsors to manage and measure risk precisely, and means non-technical users can analyse pension assets and liabilities in a timely manner.

Dean Newman is PFA’s new IT Director and is tasked with building an infrastructure fit for a global business. Having previously led infrastructure projects for companies such as Barclays and Alliance Boots, Newman brings a wealth of experience around building scalable and robust technology.

Comments Newman: “I am very excited about joining RiskFirst, having the opportunity to work in an environment that constantly challenges the norm, pushes the boundaries of technology and has a team of highly talented people working to a common goal.”

Nick Francis joins PFA as a Director of Product Development to lead the development of PFaroe, after a period consulting for the company. He joins after successfully running Sentient for 17 years – a well respected IT consultancy that partnered with Microsoft to work with blue-chip clients on enterprise projects. Francis used his experience in massively parallel processing while he worked closely with the Microsoft product team on their Windows Azure cloud computing platform and produced the first commercial application hosted in Azure.

“My motivation was to stay with a fantastic team to continue to develop this ground-breaking project,” says Francis. “This is data-warehousing on a vast scale – multiprocessing major industry names. This really is a cutting-edge platform.”

Finally, Matthew Seymour joins as a Director of Product Development. Formerly the CTO of FundWorks, a global SaaS provider to the asset management industry, Seymour has joined PFA to lead the growth and delivery of PFaroe.

“After seeing the transformative potential of PFaroe,” says Seymour, “I thought the opportunity too good to pass up. PFA has a unique mix of being entrepreneurial, flexible and dynamic enough to cope with change, but sufficiently well-resourced to deliver an uncompromised solution.”

All three will report to Fiona Page, Partner and CTO at PFA.

“These three appointments will help PFA continue towards its goal of transforming defined benefit pensions risk management. We are delighted to have attracted three individuals of such high calibre.”