Essex Pension Fund

Jody Evans serves as Director for the Essex Pension Fund. Councillor Susan Barker chairs the Pension Strategy Board and the Investment Steering Committee, providing member-level governance. Kevin McDonald, the former director, now serves as interim director of the ACCESS Pool, the collective investment vehicle to which Essex contributes.

Essex is a founding member of the ACCESS Pool — a collaboration of 11 central, eastern, and southern shire LGPS funds that collectively pool roughly £35 billion. The pool was established to reduce investment costs and improve access to illiquid assets. Essex participates in ACCESS mandates across private equity, infrastructure, and private credit strategies.

Real-asset allocations include a global timberland portfolio, a UK-focused Real Estate Impact Strategy targeting mixed-use properties, and a global commercial real estate mandate with CBRE. The fund also holds an interest in the Stafford Carbon Offset Opportunity Fund, indicating a thematic overlay within its natural-capital exposure.

Essex has been a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code since 2022, formalizing its commitment to active ownership and transparent reporting. It is a member of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, a UK network that coordinates shareholder engagement and corporate governance pressure. The fund's pension board structure ensures fiduciary oversight of ESG integration.

Essex uses a hybrid approach. It maintains direct mandates, such as the CBRE global commercial real estate account and the UK Real Estate Impact Strategy, while also accessing private-markets exposure through its membership in the ACCESS Pool. This gives the fund both bespoke direct relationships and scaled pooled access.

The fund runs a multi-asset institutional portfolio covering public equities, fixed income, real estate, infrastructure, private equity, and hedge funds. Within alternatives, exposure spans both fund commitments and direct mandates. Timberland and carbon-offset allocations suggest a horizon encompassing natural capital as a distinct asset class.

Through its founding membership in the ACCESS Pool, Essex benefits from the pooled negotiation of management and performance fees across £35 billion in collective assets. This structure provides fee schedules typically reserved for much larger institutional pools, materially reducing implementation costs relative to a standalone LGPS fund negotiating alone.