If you’re a sports lover, you’ll appreciate how ‘the Third Man’ in football or cricket is crucial to securing a win. I’d suggest MNTs are Pension Trustee Board’s ‘Third Man’ or rather ‘Third Voice’.

Apart from the visual value MNTs can bring to a Trustee Board: MNTs understand their members mindset.  Neither professional advisers nor sole chairs bring ‘a player’s perspective’ to the game plan. That’s why an MNTs voice on Boards is essential.  

I’m no Pep Guardiola [Manchester City Coach for the uninitiated] - and Pep is certainly no pension guru - but he succeeded by utilising the ‘players voice’ when developing technically astute players.  The appointment and involvement of MNTs on Boards, may be difficult to execute and requires skill to manage, but the end result isdefinitely worth it. Given First Bus’s 3 National Awards in less than 9 months, [Sept 2025 - WSB Award, Nov 2025 - PMI Pinnacle Award, and March 2026 - Pensions Age Award], I’d say Muntazir [Monty] Hadadi, Employer Trustee & Head of Pensions at First Bus, deserves a Pep style ‘Coach of the Year Award’ especially, as he explains ‘this was really largely down to the incredible work our MNT’s do every single day’.

First Bus have proven that listening to the Third Voice on a Trustee Board can be a real gamechanger….so let’s all be more Pep [or Monty] in our strategy, training and decision making. Judging by the end results, listening to the third voice is definitely worth it.

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