The Royal Mail Pension Plan has appointed a new chair, as it reinvents itself as a smaller entity ahead of the state-run postal operator’s part-privatisation.

Joanna Matthews will succeed Jane Newell, who last week announced that she would step down in September after nearly eight years with the plan. Unlike Newell, Matthews will not become chair of the Royal Mail's defined contribution fund, which has about £50m of savings so far. Royal Mail said that an appointment to this position would be made separately.