September 17 | Roadmaps to Retirement 2025: Global Lessons and Paths Ahead

Event Information

Date:

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Time:

1:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Networking lunch from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Location:

Tom and Ruth Harkin Center (2800 University Ave., Des Moines, IA 50311)
Zoom Livestream*
*A Zoom link will be sent to virtual attendees closer to the day of the event

Cost:

Free, but registration is required via Eventbrite

Accommodations:

Live-captioning (CART) in English and American Sign Language interpretation will be available for all attendees. Additional accommodation requests can be made by emailing harkininstitute@drake.edu.

Event Summary

Roadmaps to Retirement 2025: Global Lessons and Paths Ahead continues our discussion on strategies to improve retirement security at the retirement system level. The roundtable discussion will focus on the private retirement savings landscape in the US and how it compares to countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia. The roundtable will address both retirement savings accumulation and retirement income options, current policies and regulations, and future goals.

Panelists

Mike Ambery

Retirement and Savings Director, Standard Life

Having joined Phoenix Group at the end of February 2024, Mike is the Retirement and Savings Director across the Phoenix Group business. He is responsible for Thinking Forward, which provides insights, debate, and the broader platform for thought and direction across Standard Life. As a Consumer Spokesperson, connecting topical and future savings and pension issues for both the consumer and press is a top priority, with learnings from a global perspective being applied.

Mike previously worked with Hymans Robertson as a Partner and Head of firm-wide proposition for 17 years, most recently overseeing the DC Master Trust consolidation for a number of high-profile corporate clients. He also advised on both M&A as well as creating one of the leading UK independent benchmarking tools on the provider market.

Michael Davis

Head of Global Retirement Strategy, T. Rowe Price

Michael Davis is the head of the Global Retirement Strategy team at T. Rowe Price. He leads an enterprise retirement strategy, advises on the development of new products and services, and helps amplify the firm’s voice in retirement security-related public policy initiatives. Michael is a member of the T. Rowe Price Trust Company Board of Directors and a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc. Michael is part of the Global Distribution Executive team, and chairs the Retirement Leadership Council and the Defined Contribution Council.

Michael has been with T. Rowe Price since 2016, beginning in the head of defined contribution plan specialists for the Americas division of T. Rowe Price. Prior to this, Michael was employed by J.P. Morgan as the managing director and head of the western U.S. region for J.P. Morgan Asset Management. Michael was later appointed deputy assistant secretary for the Employee Benefits Security Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Michael earned a B.B.A. in finance from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.P.P. in public policy from Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government. He is a Series 3, 7, 30, 63, and 24 registered representative. Michael is a member of the executive committee for the DC Institutional Investment Association and an advisory board member for the Aspen Institute Forum on Retirement Savings.

David Harris

Managing Director, TOR Financial Consulting Limited

David is a recognised international expert on global pension reforms and design, along with wrap platforms. He has more than twenty-five years of experience with pension reform issues in Australia, Singapore, the Americas, Israel, New Zealand, Asia, South Africa, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Central Europe. He has advised companies on media, political, and public policy coverage in Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand

A former financial services and competition regulator, David has served on Australian and Irish Government inquiries into public and private sector pensions. In 2013, he served as an adviser to the OECD in their review of the Irish Pension System.

Prior to founding TOR, he was a senior consultant with Watson Wyatt & Company in the United Kingdom and Research Consultant with Watson Wyatt LLP in Washington, DC. He has testified four times before the U.S. Congress (House Ways & Means and Commerce Committees and Senate Ageing) 1998-2004, on international social security and pension reform aspects.

He has a Bachelor of Business in Accounting and a post-graduate qualification in bank management.

Guy Opperman

UK Pensions and Financial Inclusion Minister (2017-2022)

Guy Opperman served four Prime Ministers and was a member of parliament from 2010 – 2024. He is the United Kingdom’s longest-serving Pensions and Financial Inclusion Minister, serving from 2017 – 2022.

He was formerly an amateur steeplechase jockey, a lawyer, worked in the family engineering business, and then was the Member of Parliament for Hexham in Northumberland from 2010 – 2024. Guy also held roles in the Home Office, Treasury, and Transport departments. He was responsible for the rollout of Defined Contribution Workplace Pensions to 8% earnings in the United Kingdom, the creation of Collective Defined Contribution Pensions, the reform of Defined Benefit, and much more.

Since leaving politics in 2024, Guy works as a consultant and adviser in the world of pensions, finance, and employee benefits. Guy has worked since December 2024 as an advisor to Smart Pensions, and for a variety of other corporates or countries setting up retirement solutions.

Mark Baldwin

Head of Business Development and Origination, Standard Life

Mark Baldwin was appointed Head of Business Development and Origination at Standard Life in June 2023. In this role, he is responsible for leading the proposition and partnership support function within the Retirement Solutions business, with a focus on delivering innovative retirement solutions that address the evolving needs of retail customers as they plan for and move through retirement.

Mark brings more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, having worked extensively with Wealth Advisers, Employee Benefit Consultants, and Retail Platforms. His career has been dedicated to developing and implementing propositions that drive growth and securing large-scale adoption of solutions.

Prior to joining Standard Life, Mark held a number of senior leadership positions within leading UK financial services organisations, with responsibilities spanning Retail Wealth Management, Workplace Pensions, and Group Risk markets.

Kelly Hahn

Head of Retirement Research, Vanguard

Kelly Hahn is head of retirement research in Vanguard’s Investment Strategy Group. Her focus is on improving people’s retirement outcomes through examining saving and investing behaviors and the surrounding retirement ecosystem. She leads a dedicated research team that studies retirement planning, savings, spending, and access, with the goal of providing solutions and education that enhance people’s chances of achieving retirement success. Her areas of expertise include retirement readiness, defined contribution plans, multi-asset solutions, and investor education.

Kelly joined Vanguard in 2023 from JPMorgan Asset Management, where she led outcomes-driven retirement research that harnessed behavioral insights from massive consumer and defined-contribution administrative datasets. Earlier in her career, she was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and a consultant at BearingPoint and Arthur Andersen.

Kelly earned an M.B.A. in finance from Columbia Business School and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Michael Kreps

Principal, Retirement Services Chair, Groom Law Group

Michael Kreps is chair of Groom’s Retirement Services group, and he works with a wide variety of clients on complex retirement and health plan issues. His firsthand experience with the legislative and regulatory process gives him a perspective that is often instrumental in helping clients develop and implement effective compliance and advocacy strategies.

From the 111^th through the 114^th Congresses, Michael served as the Senior Pensions and Employment Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. He managed all aspects of the Committee’s retirement agenda and had primary staff responsibility for pension legislation, including the pension investment provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the funding stabilization and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation reform provisions of the MAP-21 Act of 2012, the Pension Relief Act of 2010, and the CSEC Pension Flexibility Act. He also led the Committee’s oversight of regulatory activities involving employee benefit plans.

Michael serves as external general counsel for the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA) and is on the Executive Committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA). He is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School (JD with honors), the University of Colorado (with distinction), and the Sorensen Institute Political Leaders Program.

Sri Reddy

Senior Vice President, Retirement and Income Solutions, Principal Financial Group

Srinivas D. (Sri) Reddy is senior vice president, Retirement and Income Solutions at Principal Financial Group®. He is responsible for the Income Solutions businesses, which includes Pension Risk Transfer, Defined Benefits, Retail Annuities, Principal Bank and our Principal Trust and Custody Solutions business.

Prior to joining Principal, Reddy was the head of the investments and retirement income businesses for Prudential Retirement. Before that, he led all the product lines for USAA’s investment management and life insurance companies and held several roles at ING where his experience ranged from managing wholesale and direct distribution groups to product development in both the defined contribution business as well as the rollover & retirement income business. Previously, he served as a consultant with Ernst & Young.

Reddy has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Baylor University and a master’s degree in International Management from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. He has also completed his coaching certification through the NeuroLeadership Institute. Reddy is a frequent contributor to national media outlets and an expert resource on a range of retirement and financial security topics. He has served on various industry and regulatory groups, including as the chair, vice-chair, and council member of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Advisory Council at the United States Department of Labor from 2017 to 2019, and is currently on the board of directors of the Insured Retirement Institute.