Cracknell (pictured above) will take up her new post next month to join TPAS - an organisation that receives funding from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and provides free information and guidance to members of the public on pension matters.
She has previously been associate director at Bluerock Consulting, a specialist financial services management consultancy, and director at Skandia UK.
“I believe in pensions as a savings vehicle for retirement and I want to help people understand them so that they are able to make informed choices,” Cracknell said.
She highlighted automatic enrolment – a new law which means every employer must automatically enrol workers into a workplace pension scheme – as a key challenge.
“It is critical that employees understand the pension scheme which they are enrolled in and pro-actively plan for their retirement,” she said.
“The Pensions Advisory Service will be active in ensuring that the information is readily available to facilitate this engagement.”
Partha Dasgupta, chair of TPAS, said: “I am very pleased to welcome Michelle to TPAS. Michelle has extensive knowledge and expertise of all aspects of pensions.
“I know she is particularly excited about working with our volunteers and leading our work on automatic enrolment to raise awareness of the value of pensions to a wider audience.”