Biographies and information about the 30 members of the council of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Institute and Faculty of Actuaries council 2010/2011.

Ronnie Bowie

President of the Faculty of Actuaries since 2008 and now President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Ronnie has been with Hymans Robertson for almost 30 years and is now senior partner with the firm. A scheme actuary and investment advisor to a number of large public and private schemes, he will be leading the profession in its mission to provide a body which reflects the aspirations of the membership and will be a member of the Scottish board. Ronnie’s primary aim for this year is to ensure the Profession has a coherent strategy for capitalising on the opportunities offered by the field of risk management.

Nigel Masters

A life insurance specialist with over 30 years' experience, Nigel was elected President of the Institute of Actuaries in 2008.  Formerly a senior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nigel joined Zurich as chief actuary of their global life insurance business in 2006 before leaving in 2009 to dedicate himself full time to his duties as President of the Institute. He is the first past-president of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Nigel’s goals for the coming year are to engage with members, speak out on public affairs, tackle international trends and ensure the health of the profession.

Jane Curtis

Jane is president-elect of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and is due to become President in 2011. Jane has been with Hewitt for the entirety of her career and is currently a managing principal with the firm. Jane has a long history of involvement with the Profession, most notably in the field of education, serving both as chair of the board of examiners and the education committee. Jane’s primary ambition for the year is to develop and secure the role of the Profession as a thought leader, adding value and insight into the important public policy debates ahead.

Gordon Bagot

Gordon was a partner of the stock broking firm Wood, Mackenzie & Co. and one of its successor companies as a director. He later became an analyst and expert witness for clients in their pursuit of recovery of assets following inappropriate and non-mandated investment management. Gordon will be leader of the Scottish board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Over the coming year, Gordon wishes to work in conjunction with universities to encourage appropriate research and training schedules for members of the Profession to deepen and broaden their skills for much wider application with existing and potential new clients.

Adrian Baskir

Adrian has worked for the Old Mutual Group since 1988 and transferred to the Old Mutual plc Group head office in London in January 2009 where he is responsible for financing, reinsurance and risk transfer.  Adrian was President of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (ASSA) from 2005-2007. He also served on a number of International Actuarial Association committees and was on the IAAHS2007 organising committee. Adrian is looking to build closer contact, improve member services and foster professionalism among the international constituency.

Andrew Chamberlain

Andrew is chief financial actuary and actuarial function holder for Partnership Assurance. He chaired the professional affairs board from July 2007, and subsequently the professional regulation executive committee until June 2009.  He has been a member of the life practice executive committee since 2001 and chairs the life standards and consultations committee. Andrew’s goal for the Profession is to focus on making it easier for actuaries to compete in a market crowded with other professionals.

Mike Codron

Mike was born in Zimbabwe but has spent his entire career in South Africa.  He runs his own consultancy firm in Johannesburg having previously served as chief actuary of the South African Financial Services Board. A president of the Actuarial Society of South Africa and Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries, Mike became the honorary overseas member of Faculty council in 2009. Mike’s ambition for the year is to see the merger successfully implemented.

Seamus Creedon

Seamus is chair of the member support executive committee and the manager of the Solvency II project of Groupe Consultatif Actuariel Européen. Seamus is affiliated with KPMG Europe, having been a partner in the firm until 2003 and is a non-executive director of a number of UK and Irish insurers. Before joining KPMG his career was in life insurance and in banking, both in the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Seamus wants to see much broader recognition for the knowledge and skills of members of the profession in relation to risks and their management.

Helen Crofts

Helen is an independent consultant.

She stood for election to council to facilitate better representation of overseas members as at that time she was working in Bermuda and was recently invited to join the council's international committee. She hopes to provide an open communication channel to address members' issues, particularly those in far-flung corners of the world.

Mike Dick

Mike is a practising scheme actuary at Scottish Life where he has had more than 20 years’ experience in pensions.  He has held various actuarial roles at Scottish Life including a 10 year period working closely with the Scottish Life appointed actuary.

His involvement with the Profession has included stints as a tutor and an examiner. He is currently a member of the consultations group for the pensions practice executive committee. Mike wants to see the profile of the profession increased both with employers and the general public.

Ralph Frankland

Ralph is the head of with profits development with Aviva UK and has been with the company since 2002. Prior to this, he worked for Friends Provident and started his career with Royal Life. A life insurance actuary, Ralph’s work for the Profession includes being a member of the life practice executive committee and a principal life insurance lecturer for the professionalism courses for new qualifiers. Ralph’s ambition for the coming year is to help the Profession to strengthen its contribution by encouraging members in different practice areas to work together on issues of common interest.

Peter Gatenby

Peter is a partner at Mazars with over 25 years’ experience in the life insurance, healthcare and investment sectors. He chairs the public affairs advisory committee and has always been interested in helping promote actuarial skills in the wider field. Peter is keen to develop the public face of the actuarial profession and see greater involvement of our members in wider debate on crucial issues where we have something of value to add.

Robert Hails

Robert joined Watson Wyatt (now Towers Watson) in 1985 and became a partner in 1987.  Robert advises a wide range of trustees and employers on all aspects of pension scheme design and financing issues, as well as being scheme actuary. 

Robert was first elected to the Institute of Actuaries council in 2003 and has served the Profession in a number of roles, most notably as honorary treasurer. For the year ahead, while the Council works on the important task of supporting members in non-traditional areas, Robert will make sure that those in traditional areas are not forgotten.

Justyn Harding

The majority of Justyn’s career has been spent in general insurance. He is group actuary with Munich Re Underwriting Ltd, a specialist  Lloyd's marine syndicate where he is responsible for reserving, capital modelling, Solvency II and pricing. Justyn has been active in the field of general insurance within the Profession and was recently responsible for the rewrite of all the general insurance education material. Justyn wants to see the Profession being more focused in educating members and being more accountable and open.

Malcolm Kemp

Malcolm is an expert in risk and quantitative finance, with over 25 years' experience in the financial services industry. He is currently managing director of Nematrian Limited, a company which specialises in developing intellectual property and providing consultancy services to the financial services sector. Malcolm wants to promote the applicability of the actuarial skill-set in risk management, both within traditional core actuarial disciplines — such as pensions, life and general insurance — and as a separate discipline in its own right via the chartered enterprise risk actuary (CERA) qualification.

Paul King

Paul has spent most of his actuarial career at Mercer where he is responsible for the professional education of more than 250 actuarial students and for setting and implementing internal professional standards. Paul represents the Profession on the International Actuarial Association education committee and is a member of the review panel for the global chartered enterprise risk actuary qualification. Paul’s ambition for the coming year is to see the CERA qualification recognised as the gold standard in risk management.

Mike Kipling

Mike is the  investment director at Phoenix Life and has been with Phoenix Life and its predecessor companies for the majority of his career including being chief actuary for Royal & SunAlliance Life from 1999 to 2005. He is now moving to become director of investment strategy and oversight at Friends' Provident. Mike has been both an honorary secretary and a vice president of the Institute. As chair of the professional regulation executive committee’s practising certificates working party he would like to make considerable progress towards making the certificates more useful both to members and to their clients.

Trevor Llanwarne

Trevor is the government actuary, a post he has held since 2008. His career has covered both life assurance and pensions and he was, prior to his appointment as government actuary, chief actuary, pensions at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Trevor believes that the fortunes of the Profession and GAD are closely linked and wants a new professionalism to take off for the whole profession — for the benefit of individual actuaries, the Profession and, most importantly, the country at large.

Katie Low

Katie has worked for Mercer in the pensions area since 2001, and qualified in 2005.  She has been based in London for her career so far, apart from a year on secondment in San Francisco.  Katie has served on Faculty Council since 2008, and has been a member of the management board since September 2009.   Over the next year she would like to see the Profession having a higher profile in the public domain, and being more able to contribute quickly and usefully when issues or debates arise.

Martin Lowes

Martin works for Hewitt and is their expert on pension cost accounting and advises companies and pension scheme trustees on a wide range of pensions related issues.
Martin’s involvement has included being an Institute council member and vice chair of the pensions practice executive committee. His goal for this year is to promote better communication with members about what the council and its bodies are doing for them.

David Martin

David is a partner with Mercer and senior consultant advising a portfolio of clients in a number of business sectors on pension-related issues. He is the UK professional leader in the retirement, risk and finance business of Mercer, chairing their professional standards committee. David has interests in international and professionalism matters and has represented the Institute and Faculty on these matters here and abroad. As deputy leader of the Scottish Board, he is looking forward to building an active group of Scottish actuaries, including those based in Scotland and beyond who are part of the Scottish constituency.

Keith Miller

Keith is head of products (actuarial) within the bancassurance area of the Royal Bank of Scotland and prior to this held a number of roles in the actuarial department of Scottish Widows.  Keith has been involved with the Profession over a number of years as an examiner and a member of various working parties, committees and research groups. Keith’s ambition for the coming year is to reinvigorate the actuarial community in Scotland.

Fiona Morrison

Fiona has been a partner of Lane Clark & Peacock since 1984, working mainly on UK pension matters and holds a number of scheme actuary appointments.  She is a member of the Profession’s professional regulation executive committee; and a member of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland and a Trustee of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries' Charitable Trust Fund.  Fiona’s primary goal for the next 12 months is for the relationship between the Profession and Professional Oversight Board to be one of equals.

Stuart Shepley

Stuart joined the non-life insurance actuarial team at KPMG in January 2009, where he is a partner responsible for growing and developing KPMG's non-life insurance risk and actuarial practice across Europe. He specialises in advising on the application of actuarial methods to pro-actively manage risk and uncertainty in financial services.
Stuart chairs the general insurance practice executive committee and is also a member of the enterprise risk management committee. His ambitions are to share best practice actuarial expertise in the international market, shape the industry’s response to international matters, including both Solvency II and IFRS, as well as to broaden the career prospects for actuaries globally.

Elaine Stevenson

Elaine is a principal at Mercer with over 20 years’ experience advising both trustees and companies on a wide range of pension issues. Elaine has always taken a keen interest in the education system and over the years has actively promoted the Actuarial Profession in both schools and universities and has served as an examiner for pensions. Over the next year, Elaine will work towards the Profession helping actuaries successfully transition from the historical rules-based regulatory regime to BAS’s new principles-based regime.

Mark Stocker

Mark is a pensions actuary working for Buck Consultants as a principal in their London office.  He has been heavily involved in actuarial education since qualifying in 1990.  He is currently chair of the education committee and a member of the qualifications executive committee and prior to that he was chair of the board of examiners and principal examiner for pensions.  Mark’s ambition for the coming year is to see the Profession become more accessible and more relevant for members.

Paul Sweeting

Paul is professor of actuarial science at the University of Kent, before which he held a number of roles with varying degrees of actuarial content. Paul sits on the management board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. His aim is for the profession to do more for actuaries working in wider fields who no longer have a strong affiliation to the Profession to find ways to help more actuaries move into these nontraditional roles.

Peter Tompkins

Peter is a consulting actuary with most of his career spent working in pensions, first at Lane Clark & Peacock and more recently at PricewaterhouseCoopers. During that time he has specialised in pensions taxation issues and in pensions regulatory work, both with the FSA and financial services clients and with the Pensions Regulator and other areas of the public sector. Recently, he has taken a break from full-time pensions work but has chaired an independent commission into public sector pensions which reported in July. His other areas of activity include leading guided tours, beekeeping and building. He is well-known as the first editor of The Actuary, in the future success of which he continues to take a keen interest, as the analyst of college fortunes at Cambridge University in his eponymous table and as the occupier of what the Guardian called "Britain's most thrilling address" in the clock tower above London's St Pancras Station. He has since 1992 served council in a number of capacities in the pensions and public affairs arena. He hopes that as well as consolidation of a friendly merger, the next year may see renewed focus on promoting our profession's extension into risk management, a strong emphasis on good member communication of what the professional body can do for members, and careful monitoring of how members may be managing in a recessionary environment.

Alan Watson

Alan is a consulting actuary with Aon Consulting in Edinburgh. He has previously worked for JLT and Buck Consultants. He has served on the pensions board and is currently a member of the standards review committee. Alan would like to see the Profession become more involved in public affairs and be consulted by government on policies that actuaries can contribute to.

Gordon Wood

Gordon is a consulting actuary with Ernst and Young and has a background in both life insurance and enterprise risk management. He is vice-chair of the enterprise risk management practice executive committee and a member of the life practice executive committee. Gordon’s ambition is to ensure that the pace of regulation and practice is both measured and appropriate.