Press release

30 April 2008

The Institute of Actuaries today announced the election of four new Honorary Fellows.

Professor Paul Klumpes of Tanaka Business School, Professor Antoon Pelsser of the University of Amsterdam, Ad Kok, Chairman of the Groupe Consultatif and Cecil Bykerk, President-elect of the Society of Actuaries in the USA were elected at the Institute’s Ordinary General Meeting on 28 April.

Honorary Fellows are selected for their involvement and connection with the Actuarial Profession and their ability to add value to the Profession's work. The last time the Institute elected an Honorary Fellow was in 2005.

Nick Dumbreck, President of the Institute, said: "The Institute is very proud of its Honorary Fellows, who support our activities in many different ways. We are delighted to be able to add four new members to this distinguished group."

Biographies of the new Honorary Fellows are available below:

• Professor Paul Klumpes
  
  Paul is a professor from Tanaka Business School, Imperial College, London, where he has taught accounting to actuarial students on the School's MSc Actuarial Science programme. His interests are wide and particularly relevant to the Actuarial Profession – he covers insurance company and pension fund accounting and reporting issues. This is an area where the Profession needs more expertise to aid understanding between actuaries and accountants. As a researcher, he is rigorous and the Profession could learn from this type of approach in developing its own research. Paul has been an Affiliate of the Institute for several years, has attended a number of the Profession’s events and has co-operated on joint research projects.
  
  
• Professor Antoon Pelsser
  
  Based in The Netherlands, Antoon is Professor of Actuarial Science at the University of Amsterdam. He is theme co-ordinator of Netspar’s research on Valuation and Risk management for Insurance Companies and Pension Funds and director of the Netspar programme on Market-Consistent Valuation of Insurance Contracts. He has previously worked as Market Risk Expert in the Corporate Insurance Risk Management group at ING and as Head of Structured Products Research within the dealing room at ABN-Amro Bank. Antoon is an Affiliate of the Dutch actuarial association and his work is expected to be influential in the continuing development of the EU Solvency II framework. He is currently engaged with the work of the UK Profession via the working party on Liquidity Premia and Market Consistent Valuations.
  
  
• Ad Kok
  
  Ad is the current chairman of the Groupe Consultatif (GC) and has made a major contribution to the GC for over a decade. He has actively supported UK efforts to get professional issues discussed at GC meetings. Recently, he has worked tirelessly during the Solvency II process to ensure that the actuarial profession was not marginalised and retained a significant role under the new regulatory process, despite the EU Commission's opposition to reserving any specific roles for qualified actuaries. He has generally been very supportive of UK initiatives in the GC, in particular the changes in the committee structure which the UK delegates advocated and which were finally approved in 2007.
  
  
• Cecil Bykerk
  
  Cecil is the President-elect of the Society of Actuaries in the USA. He has made a significant contribution to the IAA over many years, primarily in the field of education, and has shown a keen interest in and support for the UK Actuarial Profession. Cecil was chairman of the IAA Education Committee for 6 years (1999 - 2004) and has remained very active in the affairs of the IAA since then. He played a key role in establishing agreed educational guidelines for member associations and heading up the assessment process to ensure that member associations complied with IAA minimum requirements on Education. Importantly, he was also a member of the implementation committee for our 2005 UK actuarial education strategy, to which he made a significant contribution, often attending meetings in the middle of the night US time.

Enquiries:

Andrew Black on 020 7632 1453

Notes to Editors

1. Actuaries provide commercial, financial and prudential advice on the management of a business’s assets and liabilities, especially where long term management and planning are critical to the success of any business venture. They also advise individuals, and advise on social and public interest issues.
2. Members of the Profession have a statutory role in the supervision of pension funds and life insurance companies. They also have a statutory role to provide actuarial opinions for managing agents at Lloyd’s.
3. The Profession is governed jointly by the Faculty of Actuaries in Edinburgh and the Institute of Actuaries in London. A rigorous examination system is supported by a programme of continuing professional development and a professional code of conduct supports high standards reflecting the significant role of the Profession in society.