16 December 2014
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Mark Cross to Chair of its Research and Thought Leadership Committee (RTLC). This followed a very competitive recruitment process that attracted a high quality set of candidates from a variety of disciplines and from around the world.
The IFoA's Research and Thought Leadership Committee (RTLC) was established earlier this year to support the profession's objective of advancing all matters relevant to actuarial science. Its key focus is to ensure that gaps in the IFoA’s research are being addressed and that IFoA research is of a high quality and being disseminated sufficiently.
Mark is currently Research Professor of Computational Modelling at Swansea University's School of Engineering. He was previously Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Consultancy and Outreach at the University of Greenwich. Mark’s experience of ensuring delivery of multi-discipline research, as well as successfully bringing together academia and industry in research initiatives, will bring great benefits to the IFoA’s own research agenda.
Interim RTLC Chair and Immediate Past President David Hare says, “We are delighted to have appointed someone of Mark’s calibre to this exciting and important role within the IFoA. Mark will be able to bring an external perspective at a time when actuarial research must remain relevant to ensure the long-term sustainability of the profession."
Commenting on his appointment, Mark says, ”It is a privilege to work with the IFoA community and I look forward to bringing to the Committee my distinctive strategic and practical experience in industry/profession focussed research from outside the actuarial world. My prime objective here is simple: to help the IFoA community formulate a coherent set of processes, themes and programmes to identify and deliver on the key research challenges now and into the future.”
Mark’s role will be for an initial term of three years.