Letter to Phil Lawman of HP Trustees

Mr Philip Lawman
Hewlett Packard Pension Plan Trustee Directors

Dear Philip

DEVELOPING BETTER UNDERSTANDING AND GOVERNANCE THROUGH SHARED DIALOGUE

Thank you for your message dated 8^th March.

Firstly, I would like to clear up any misunderstanding through my use of the word “representative”, and to explain why we believe there is great value in engaging and having enhanced dialogue with you and your colleagues.

I appreciate and understand your clarification that both member and company nominated directors carry identical responsibilities. That has never been in dispute. I also want to re-assure you that it is not our intention to single-out MNDs to the exclusion of other directors. We look upon all trustee directors as collectively speaking for members best interests, and at the same time consider member nominated directors as having a particular nuance to their role as mentioned further below.

We have already established a valuable and productive relationship with Paul and Martin, and we hope that this will continue in the future.

As well as the above relationship, we believe there is mutual benefit in extending connections and establishing dialogue with the Member Nominated Directors. We have simple, genuine, and straight-forward reasons for our request, and believe we will all gain valuable insight, enhanced thinking, and understanding in so doing.

I hope that better explaining our motives and intentions will make you and your colleagues feel more comfortable, and that you also see the value in agreeing to establish a regular dialogue with HPPA. We think that this has been a missing link in the past, and making stronger connections now across the wider trustee board is a useful development towards enhanced overall governance.

It is interesting and instructive to note that David Weeks, the former chair of the UK Association of Member Nominated Trustees, is quoted as saying:

• “MNTs are the voice of the rank and file pension scheme members in the governance of their schemes”
• “They provide the intimate link between a pension scheme’s governance and its membership”

We share these important sentiments.

Reflecting on the above, we believe that establishing a discussion forum enabling dialogue between us will:

• create a safe and non-confrontational environment for sharing perspectives
• lead to greater shared understanding and insight into the needs and of feelings of both the members and the trustees
• strengthen the links between members and trustee governance creating mutual benefit

2.

If the dialogue process between us does not work as proposed, then we would obviously need to collectively re-assess and adapt, in good faith.

As you know, company leadership has made a significant, welcome, and hugely symbolic decision this year. They have broken the thirteen-year cycle of negative outcomes, and granted a discretionary increase. We have acknowledged  this in HPPA’s recent communication to Marc Waters, Antonio Neri, and Paul Early. We hope that you can see that in our communication we appreciate and value this positive change. This is a significant first step in our journey to a better future for the company’s pensioners, who remain in a critical position due to decisions over many past years and the increasingly dire current economic circumstances.

We believe a critical aspect of continuing on our journey can be facilitated through dialogue with yourselves – enabling you to get better insight into member perspectives, and for us to better understand your position and views. As the Trustees have already acknowledged, HPPA have put a tremendous amount of effort into their research and proposals over the last year or two. We believe we have made a significant contribution to breaking the cycle. We also believe we can contribute to supplementing member nominated directors understanding and insight through further sharing of our work, research, and member feedback.

Clearly, all the Trustee Directors and company leadership play key roles in working together to deliver the fundamental objectives of the pension plan, and through this, contributing to the financial security and overall well-being of members over their remaining lifetimes.

However, we also believe MNDs are in a unique position as you are the “intimate link” between members and the overall system of effective governance. We believe you will have greater capability in fulfilling this unique aspect of your valued role through enhanced connection and dialogue with the HPPA team and their members.

I hope that this further explanation gives you and your colleagues a more comfortable feel regarding our intentions, and that you will collectively agree to open exploratory discussions – and to see where it takes us. We believe that it will benefit us all.

I hope and believe that we all share the same objectives – the fair, equitable and financially secure future for all our pensioners, who gave so much to the business during their careers.

We look forward to meeting with you, Paul, and Martin at the Dexodus AGM, and hope that we can collectively agree to arrange an initial exploratory conversation on how we can take further this proposed enhanced collaboration.

Yours sincerely

MARTIN RANWELL
HPPA Committee Member