The Money and Pensions Service (Maps) has appointed Caroline Siarkiewicz as its permanent chief executive, after she had taken on the role following the sudden resignation of John Govett in June.
Mr Govett had resigned from his role only two months after the launch of the service due to "an impending family relocation".
Maps said it was decided that Ms Siarkiewicz would be best to continue in the role permanently following a recruitment process with both internal and external candidates.
Prior to her role as chief executive, Ms Siarkiewicz was partnerships and commissioning director at Maps, an executive board role with responsibility for the organisation’s relationships with partners throughout the UK.
Before this she was head of UK debt advice at the Money Advice Service, which has now been incorporated into Maps, and chief executive of the Institute of Money Advisers.
Maps, which was made up of the merger of Pension Wise, the Money Advice Service and The Pension Advisory Service, officially launched in April 2019 and is a joined-up service for everything guidance, from debt help to money and pensions guidance.
Sir Hector Sants, chair of Maps, said: “Caroline has demonstrated - both through her time as acting chief executive and in her previous roles - her understanding of and commitment to Maps’s vision, its customers, its people and its stakeholders throughout the UK.
“As chair of the board, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Caroline all the best in this new permanent role, which is effective immediately.”
Guy Opperman, pensions minister, said: “I’m delighted that Caroline will be leading the Money and Pensions Service through the next stage of its development. The delivery of the UK Strategy and Pensions Dashboard, alongside the current services that support the most vulnerable, remain top priorities for this government. I wish Caroline and all of the team at Maps every success.”
Last week (January 21), Maps launched its UK strategy for financial wellbeing, which set out goals to be achieved by 2030 across five areas including financial education, saving, credit, debt advice and retirement.
To encourage more people to save in the long-term Maps has proposed introducing guidance packages which would work alongside the proposed pension dashboards to help people take action when needed.
These packages would be focused on specific life events such as parental leave and divorce.
The service is also responsible for building the first pension dashboard and ensuring that an industry delivery group, brought together by the guidance body, will set out a timetable for other fully operational dashboards, as well as setting standards and ensuring security across the portals.
amy.austin@ft.com
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