THE UNTAMED STORY...

From the farfetched dreams of a trio of pension nerds to an established strategic marketing, policy and PR consultancy. Our journey has followed its own unique course. Born from big ideas, a thirst for knowledge and plenty of creativity.

We realised how much of the pensions world wanted to make a positive difference. But not everyone has the marketing, policy or PR teams or expertise to make it happen. Untamed Consulting – the powerhouse collaboration between Shula PR and Policy and Untamed Marketing – was created to bridge that gap.

We’ve worked in the pensions industry for too many years to mention – running marketing campaigns and teams, launching products, building policy strategies and advocacy, and raising brand profiles through PR and market engagement. We understand the inhouse struggles, where strategic partners can (and can’t) add value and the legislative drivers. It’s why Untamed has taken off. With clients spanning the breadth of the pensions industry from schemes to insurers, advisers to technology partners…and we’re growing every month.

So why Untamed? We’re not wild, but we like to push boundaries. For far too long the industry has hidden behind complexity and T&Cs – making organisations cautious and predictable, when sometimes you need to really push the boat out. Boundaries, when pushed, can deliver better results. We want to provide the right level of challenge and not just do what’s always been done before. But an effective market engagement strategy does need consistency – both for the big splash and the steady ebb and flow of regular activity. Untamed Consulting brings the energy and depth to make it work.

Karen Quinn

Karen’s a skilled and experienced chartered marketer with a lengthy background in finance and pensions. Fearless and tenacious, Karen will get into the nitty-gritty of your market, your propositions and your customers wants and needs in order to shape strategic marketing plans to suit you.

With a broad insight into the pensions market overall, she’s able to identify opportunities quickly and help you put your plans into action to capitalise on them. Karen has held previous senior marketing roles at ITM Independent Transition Management, blending pensions, data and technology, as well as at The People’s Pension, with instrumental campaigns which led to rapid and continued growth, both in membership and awareness.

Beyond work Karen is mum to three inspiring, highly-spirited children – with attitudes and ideas so big they’re sure to be future leaders! With a love for sun, sea and gin, when Karen has time off she’s BBQ’ing on remote Cornish beaches or dancing the night away to live music.

And what’s with the water?

The connection to pensions might be tenuous, but water, the sea in particular, holds a very special piece of Karen’s heart. And who she is, is reflected in everything Untamed does. She grew up spending weekends and holidays learning to sail, windsurf and dive…

In it, on it, under it, this is where she’s in her element. The energy, cadence and sheer beauty of the sea is mesmerising. In a nutshell, if we can reflect a tiny bit of the power and energy of the sea in the marketing that we deliver, we’ll know we’re doing something right.

Update… it looks like the LDI crisis makes the liquid connection to pensions more relevant than ever!

View Karen’s blog posts.

Darren Philp

If you work in pensions, you’ve probably heard of Darren...with a couple of decades of policy experience behind him (in pensions and whilst at HM Treasury) - Darren has played instrumental roles in shaping the pensions legislation of today.

Darren is a self-confessed pensions and financial services geek, with a passion for creating a better, simpler more engaging industry that delivers better outcomes for its customers.

A co-founder of Untamed Consulting, Darren jumped with both feet out of client-side roles in June 2022, creating Shula PR and Policy to help clients with policy, PR and strategic market engagement. He wanted to try something different. The rest…as they say…is history.

Prior to setting up Shula, Darren was Director of Policy and Market Engagement at both Smart and People’s Pension, and Director of Policy at the NAPF (now PLSA). Darren started his career as a civil servant at HM Treasury where he headed up the pensions team between 2007 and 2010 and was closely involved in the design and implementation of the UK’s flagship auto-enrolment programme.

Darren is active within the industry contributing to research, thought leadership and policy development work, and is a regular commentator in the media. He has sat on various PLSA and ABI committees, is a member of PASA's DC committee, and sits on the PMI's Development and External Affairs Committees. Darren is a governor and trustee of thePensions Policy Institute.

At home Darren is dad to two young, bright and beautiful daughters. He can often be spotted listening to live music and is an avid festival-goer and huge Miami Dolphins fan! He’s also learning to play the piano (in all that spare time!).