The voting process has now closed and after sifting through several hundred votes the shortlist for Pensions Personality of the Year has been finalised.
Professional Pensions would like to thank all those who took the time to make a nomination and to congratulate all those who made the shortlist.
The final decision is now in the hands of the judges of the UK Pensions Awards - a 34-strong list of the most experienced pension scheme managers, trustees and advisers in the industry.
The winner will be the person who, in the eyes of the industry, has done the most to further the cause of occupational pensions over the past year.
The final winner of the Pensions Personality of the Year will be announced at the UK Pensions Awards dinner on 5 May at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
"We have been overwhelmed with the number of votes that have come in for this year's Pensions Personality award," said Professional Pensions editor Helen Morrissey. "The comments that have come in from those who voted makes me think this will be a very closely fought competition. I would like to congratulate everyone who made the shortlist and wish them the best of luck."
Should you use twitter and wish to tweet about Pensions Personality of the Year 2016, the official hashtag is #PensionsPersonality2016
Previous winners of the accolade include 2015's winner Barnett Waddingham's Malcolm McLean and current pensions minister Ros Altmann who won in 2007 and 2008.
Further information about the UK Pensions Awards can be found at: www.ukpensionsawards.com.
The final shortlist is:
John Finch - formerly director, JLT Employee Benefits
John was director at JLT Employee Benefits. During the course of his career, he was responsible for investment consulting, fiduciary management and local authority advisory business.
As well as being a founding father of diversified growth fund (DGF) portfolios in the early 2000s and the modern lifestyling structures for DC schemes in the 1990s, more recently he helped to develop the first collaborative LGPS pension funds procurement for infrastructure investment through the Search Work for Investment Managers (SWIM) service.
John retired in April 2016 and has been invited to become Chair of the Shadow Oversight Board for the Brunel Pension Partnership.
Those nominating John cited the "outstanding" work he has done over the past 12 months to help drive forward Local Government Pension Scheme asset pooling; his "huge contribution" to the pension and benefits industry over the past 30 years; as well as the "pragmatic and professional advice" he provides to pension clients.
Steve Herbert - head of benefits strategy, Jelf Employee Benefits
Steve is head of benefits strategy at Jelf and a regular blogger on pension and employee benefit issues.
In addition, he has run a number of seminar series over the past decade and is a regular contributor to Department for Work and Pensions forums and government consultations on pension and employee benefit issues.
He says he is "occasionally accused of making employee benefits interesting".
Those who nominated Steve cited him as an "amazing source of technical know-how with regard to pensions"; "down to earth" and say he makes "pensions accessible and quirky".
Malcolm McLean - senior consultant, Barnett Waddingham
Malcolm is Barnett Waddingham's in-house "pensions expert" and is one of the firm's leading media spokespeople.
As the former chief executive of the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS), Malcolm has an extensive knowledge of all aspects of the UK pensions industry - and is a regular commentator on TV, radio and in the national and trade press.
Those nominating Malcolm cite his ability to explain complex pension issues in a simple way.
Damian Stancombe - partner, Barnett Waddingham
Damian heads up the workplace health and wealth team for Barnett Waddingham. He advises a range of UK corporate and trustee clients on their workplace health and wealth issues; from scheme design through to ongoing governance for defined contribution arrangements - essentially looking at anything that employers use to recruit, retain and improve their workforce and aligning it with their corporate culture.
Those nominating Damian cited his "knowledge and experience" and also said he was a "fun person to work with".
Steve Webb - director of policy and external communications at Royal London
Steve was pensions minister from 2010 to 2015. During his time as minister, he oversaw the introduction of the single tier state pension, auto-enrolment and the pension freedoms.
He joined Royal London as director of policy and external communications in August last year and is a regular commentator on pensions in print and broadcast media.
Those nominating Steve cited his role in reforming pensions over the past six years and his part in "ensuring the industry is getting the right outcomes for customers".
