Presidential Speaker Series: Cultural Transformation of the Profession

Panel:

Jane Curtis

Jane is very prominent in the UK financial services industry and is a senior partner at Aon where she has spent her entire working career. In her role as Scheme Actuary Jane is well respected by her UK pension scheme Trustee clients at Aon, having advised a wide range of pension scheme clients over her 40-year career and her portfolio currently contains some household names.  She is also a Trustee on Aon's own multi billion pension scheme board giving her a key insight into "the other side of the table".

In 2014 she was appointed as the first female non-executive director of the Lloyds Banking Group Insurance Board and has recently been reappointed for a further term.

Jane was President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries from 2011-12 (having been the first female President), following years of service to the IFoA in a variety of roles including, in particular, education and professional regulation. Jane has also represented the IFoA on the Strategic Planning Committee of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) and currently chairs the IAA Audit and Finance Committee and is vice chair of the IAA Communications Sub-committee.

She is a Trustee of a children's cancer charity – Friends of the Belarusian Children's Hospice (UK). She is also non-executive chairman of The Exercise Clinic a UK business founded by her daughter which focuses on providing support for patients with prostate cancer.

Ronnie Bowie

Ronnie is Hymans Robertson's Senior Partner. He joined the firm in 1980. Through the subsequent period he has led the firm to its current position of being considered as the UK's leading independent actuarial and investment adviser.

Ronnie was President of the Faculty of Actuaries from 2008-09 and was a driving force behind its merger with the Institute of Actuaries becoming the first President of the combined Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He is Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland Pension Scheme, Chair of the With Profits Committee of the Prudential Assurance Corporation, a member of the Professional and Business Services Council, and the Board of the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.

Sally Bridgeland

Sally Bridgeland is an actuary with pensions and investment experience as an adviser, trustee and non-executive director. She is currently a non-executive director at insurer Royal London, at Impax Asset Management and Local Pensions Partnership Limited, where she chairs its FCA regulated investment company.

Until recently Sally was a pension trustee for both NEST Corporation and the Lloyds Bank pension funds, having previously been Chief Executive Officer of the BP Pension Scheme 2007-14. She spent 20 years with Aon as a consultant and in research and innovation.

Sally serves in a voluntary capacity as a member of the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) and Chairs the Strategic Advisory Board for the Centre for Mathematical Cognition at Loughborough University, launched in early 2020. She is an Honorary Group Captain with 601 Squadron RAuxAF.

Sally was the first lady Master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries from 2016-2017 and was named as a role model of the year in the 2018 Women in Pensions Awards by Professional Pensions.

Paul Thornton

Paul was President of the Institute of Actuaries (1998-2000), and of the International Actuarial Association (2010). He was also Chairman of the Association of Consulting Actuaries and Chairman of the Pensions Committee of what is now the European Association of Actuaries. He received a President’s Award from the Society of Actuaries in the USA in 1999 for his contribution to international co-operation in the actuarial profession.

He has written professional papers in the pensions field on Scheme Design, Bulk Transfers and Realistic Funding Assumptions, and has spoken at OECD and World Bank conferences, in addition to participating in meetings of the OECD Private Pensions Working Party and the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors. He co-edited “Good Governance for Pension Schemes”, published by Cambridge University Press in July 2011.

Until June 2006, Paul was with Watson Wyatt, where he was Actuary to a number of major pension schemes. He served on the Watson Wyatt Worldwide Board of Directors from November 2000 until January 2006 and was the Senior Partner of Watson Wyatt LLP from May 2001 until July 2005.

He was then Chairman of the pensions team at Gazelle Corporate Finance Limited, Member of the With Profits Committee of Prudential Assurance, and strategic adviser to data mining specialist DCisions, as well as a non-executive director of the life company at BGI.

In May 2007 he provided an independent Report to the Minister for Pensions Reform in the UK on a Review of nine Government sponsored Pensions Institutions.

Tan Suee Chieh

Tan Suee Chieh is the Past President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. From 2013 to 2017, he was the Group Chief Executive at NTUC Enterprise - the holding entity of the NTUC social enterprises (cooperatives) in Singapore. The group has businesses in Retail; Food & Beverage; Financial Services; Education & Training services; Eldercare services and Property. From 2007 to 2013, Suee Chieh was the Chief Executive of NTUC Income, a composite cooperative insurer and one of the largest insurance businesses in Singapore.

Between 2003 and 2006, he was President, Asia Pacific of the SHL Group Ltd, a British psychometric and psychological consultancy firm. From 1981 to 2001, Suee Chieh was with the Prudential Group and held several senior positions including Actuary of Prudential Malaysia, Chief Executive of Prudential Singapore and Regional Managing Director, Established Markets of Prudential Corporation Asia.

Suee Chieh has a first-class honours degree from the London School of Economics and a Master’s degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University, New York. He is a Past President of the Life Insurance Association of Singapore and the Actuarial Society of Malaysia.