Industry colleagues, friends and family are mourning the death of consumer champion Caroline Rookes, chair of The Pensions Ombudsman.

She passed away on Monday 16 October.

Ms Rookes had been chair of The Pensions Ombudsman since November 2020, following her appointment as interim chair in September 2019.

During her time at The Pensions Ombudsman, she provided strategic governance through the global pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis.

She oversaw a period of significant transformation including delivering a new customer pathway, onboarding four new NEDs who joined in May 2021 and launching the pilot Pensions Dishonesty Unit.

Pensions Ombudsman Dominic Harris said: “Caroline was a shining example of ‘public service’, with a desire to make the world a better place, particularly the world of pensions. As chair, she found the perfect balance between being supportive and challenging – and, in particular, she made sure that our decisions were always taken with the best interests of the public and our other users at the forefront of our mind. She will be greatly missed.”

She was formerly the CEO of guidance body the Money Advice Service, between 2013 and 2017. Prior to this she was director of private pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions where she led the programme to introduce automatic enrolment and the NEST pension scheme.

She was also a trustee of the Civil Service Sports Council Superannuation scheme, the NEST pension scheme and the Pension Superfund.

During the 2017/18 pension restructuring exercise, Ms Rookes led an independent review of communications and support provided to British Steel Pension Scheme members. Her report heavily criticised regulators, including the FCA and TPR for failing to ensure steelworkers had access to up-to-date and impartial information before making important decisions over their pensions.

From 2002 to 2005, she was the director of savings pensions and share schemes at HMRC, where she led a reform of the pension tax regime.

She was awarded a CBE in 2010 in recognition of her successful civil service career and in 2014 she was awarded an Alumni Award by Lancaster University for outstanding achievement.