Present and past Chairs of the ECPA
2026 – Present
Helena Mules | Co-lead of the Covenant team at WTW
Helena is co-lead of the covenant team at WTW. She has over 15 years’ experience in providing support to trustee and corporate clients on a range of covenant issues including funding, contingent assets, corporate activity and regulatory related advice.
Helena has been involved in a number of high-profile transactions including supporting the first superfund transaction and providing corporate support on several global M&As. Her role at WTW has also enabled her to have a strong focus on the integration of covenant with a scheme’s funding and investment strategy.
Prior to joining WTW, Helena worked at a global accountancy firm and has a background in restructuring. Helena is a Chartered Certified Accountant.
2024 – 2026: Luke Hartley | Partner Grant Thornton
Luke is a partner and head of pensions advisory at Grant Thornton, whom he joined in 2022. He has experience across the whole spectrum of covenant advisory services, including triennial reviews, annual monitoring, corporate restructuring and M&A activity, across a range of sectors and scheme asset sizes. He has a particularly strong understanding of regulatory engagement and enforcement (often in the context of corporate events), having worked on several landmark regulatory cases and through a six-month secondment to the Pensions Regulator in the first half of 2022.
2023 – 2024: Guy Mander
Guy Mander | Partner at RSM UK
Guy is a chartered accountant and licensed insolvency practitioner with RSM UK and has over 30 years’ experience in restructuring. He began his career undertaking a mix of advisory and formal insolvency work for a variety of stakeholders in the distressed space. He began advising trustees and corporates on covenant-related matters when the Pensions Act 2004 came into effect and has now specialised in this area for more than 15 years. His clients span a broad range of sectors and he is a regular contributor on covenant-related matters at industry events.
2021 – 2023: Karina Brookes
Karina Brookes | Partner at EY-Parthenon
Karina leads EY-Parthenon’s UK covenant advisory team within their wider Pensions Strategy practice. She is a chartered accountant and qualified insolvency practitioner. She started to advise trustees and corporates on covenant as soon as the 2004 Pensions Act came into effect and has specialised in this area for the past 15 years including spending time on secondment to the Pensions Regulator in their funding team.
2019 – 2020: Paul Burnett
Paul Burnett CA | Head of Employer Covenant, RPMI Railpen
Paul is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years’ experience in corporate finance, restructuring and turnaround. Paul took up his role within RPMI Railpen’s Employer Covenant team in 2010.
2017 – 2019: Donald Fleming
Donald Fleming | Partner, RSM
Donald has specialised in covenant assessment and advisory work for large pension schemes and corporates since 2005. Prior to that he had extensive experience in corporate finance. He qualified and practised as a banking lawyer.
2016 – 2017: Keith Hinds
Keith Hinds FCA | Grant Thornton UK
Keith is a chartered accountant and licensed insolvency practitioner. He is a pensions advisory partner in Grant Thornton’s recovery and reorganisation team. He has specialised in providing covenant, affordability advice and negotiation assistance to employers and the trustees of pension schemes since 2005 and has over 25 years’ experience in recovery work.
2013 – 2016: Gary Squires
Gary Squires | Senior Adviser, Lincoln Pensions
Gary is a chartered accountant and licensed insolvency practitioner with over 20 years’ experience in corporate restructuring and creditor advisory roles. He is also a CEDR accredited mediator. Gary is widely recognised as a leading expert in employer covenant issues, having worked on some of the most significant cases in this field.
2012: Paul Brice
Paul Brice | Partner, Grant Thornton UK
Paul is a chartered accountant, chartered tax adviser and member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. Paul has extensive experience in corporate finance and restructuring.
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