Speakers

Andrew Rayner FIA FASSA
Chief Risk Officer and Chief Actuary (Group)
Discovery Limited

Currently the Chief Risk Officer and Chief Actuary (Group) for Discovery Limited, Andrew's role spans all group entities, including SA, UK and global partnerships. Discovery Limited is a leading financial services organisation founded on the principles of customer engagement and wellness. Andrew is a qualified Actuary with over 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry, including nine years at a UK with-profits Life office, 1½ years with a global reinsurer and 15 years as a Partner at Deloitte South Africa, of which the last five were as National Leader of the actuarial consulting practice.

He has wide experience of all aspects of Life Office actuarial management having performed the role of Appointed Actuary (as well as Independent Actuary) for a broad range of different insurance operations and he has significant experience of Solvency II, risk strategy formulation and the implementation of risk frameworks. Andrew has contributed widely to the actuarial profession in South Africa, including the role of Convenor of the Professionalism Course Committee, Chairman (and currently member) of the Life Assurance Committee, a current member of the Enterprise Risk Management Committee and for the past year an elected member of Council.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Mountain View, California, USA, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Research Foundation, a California-based 501(c)(3) biomedical research charity that performs and funds laboratory research dedicated to combating the aging process. He is also VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup developing new therapies in the field of biomedical gerontology. In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in aging. He received his BA in computer science and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Cambridge. His research interests encompass the characterisation of all the types of self-inflicted cellular and molecular damage that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association, and sits on the editorial and scientific advisory boards of numerous journals and organisations. He is a highly sought-after speaker who gives 40-50 invited talks per year at scientific conferences, universities, companies in areas ranging from pharma to life insurance, and to the public.

Rodney Maddock

Rodney Maddock is a Professor of Finance at Monash University, working in the Australian Centre for Financial Studies. He is also a Non-Executive Director of CEDA. Earlier he had been Executive General Manager (Strategy) at the Commonwealth Bank and Chief Economist at the Business Council of Australia. Rod's main research interests focus on the regulation of the finance sector and he is a regular commentator for the Australian Financial Review and other media. His PhD is from Duke University.

Peter Kell BA (Hons)

Peter Kell commenced as Deputy Chair on 6 May 2013.  Prior to this appointment he was Commissioner from 7 November 2011. 

From August 2008 Mr Kell was Deputy Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.  He was President of the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network in 2009-2010, and also served on the Consumer Policy Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.  Mr Kell has been on the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board since its establishment, and is a member of the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Committee.

Before joining the ACCC, Mr Kell was Chief Executive of CHOICE (the Australian Consumers' Association) and a board member of the global consumer organisation Consumers International. 

Between 1998 and 2004 Mr Kell was ASIC’s Executive Director of Consumer Protection and its New South Wales Regional Commissioner.

Trevor Gruzin
Senior Managing Director
Accenture Strategy Lead – Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East and Turkey

Trevor Gruzin is senior managing director responsible for Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East and Turkey within Accenture Strategy. His role focuses on advising companies and governments on strategy (Business, IT, Digital), innovation applied to business and operating models and transformation. His specific focus is on how technology can disrupt companies and industries. He is a member of the Accenture Global Leadership Council as well as the Accenture Strategy Leadership team and the Growth Markets Leadership team.

Mr. Gruzin is also co-leading the Accenture Way program across all of Accenture with direct responsibilities to drive the next generation of consulting and strategy methods across the company.

Mr. Gruzin has more than 29 years of experience working for Accenture. Prior to his current role, Mr. Gruzin led Growth & Strategy as well as the Accenture Management Consulting practice serving Asia Pacific for three years, where he was responsible for strategy projects across a diverse range of industries in Japan, China, India, South Korea, ASEAN and Australia.

Previously, Mr. Gruzin led the Global Banking Industry practice for several years. In other roles, Mr. Gruzin was responsible for sponsoring the Management Consulting Capability Network, which included approximately 2,500 consultants in India, China and other emerging markets. He also led management consulting engagements globally for Accenture Financial Services and held the position of global industry managing director for banking.

Across his entire career, Mr. Gruzin has always remained closely connected to helping clients change.  He has been the account lead for several major clients primarily in banking but also in other industries.

Mr. Gruzin has a Bachelor of Science (Honors) degree in computing from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Stuart Stoyan
Founder and CEO of marketplace lender MoneyPlace.  

MoneyPlace is one of Australia's fastest growing consumer lenders, connecting credit-worthy borrowers with investors. Acquired by Liberty Financial in 2018, MoneyPlace uses risk-based pricing to offer consumers the best rate possible. 

Stuart is a leading member of Australia’s fintech community and has helped shape national fintech and innovation policies as Chair of Fintech Australia (Australia’s national fintech association), as the founder of the National Fintech Census (Australia’s first and largest survey of the local fintech industry), and is also a member of the Federal Government’s Fintech Advisory Group. 

Prior to founding MoneyPlace Stuart was the Head of Strategy for NAB Business and a management consultant at Bain & Company.

Dr Katrina Ellis

Katrina is a senior financial regulator with the Australian Prudential Authority (APRA), experienced in regulatory frameworks for banking, superannuation and insurance. She is a Fulbright scholar with a PhD in Finance from Cornell University USA.
Katrina has held a number of roles across policy, supervision and analysis during her 10 years at APRA. She is currently the General Manager of Data Transformation responsible for leading APRA's data transformation agenda

Michael Vrisakis

Michael has over 30 years’ experience in financial services. Michael’s primary area of focus and expertise is on the regulation of retail financial services, insurance, superannuation, platforms and products and, in particular, strategic regulatory advice and investigations. He is a recognised expert in the area of non-contentious regulation and is regularly nominated a leading practitioner in this space and quoted in the financial press.

Ian Laughlin
BSc, FIA, FIAA, CERA, FAICD

Ian Laughlin has a deep interest in risk management and risk culture - particularly in the financial services world. He has had a long career in financial services enior management and board roles, in various countries. He currently chairs the boards of a group of insurance companies owned by one of the major banks. He also is the Advisory Board Chairman of Blackhall and Pearl, a specialist risk management and board performance firm. Until mid 2015, he was Deputy Chairman of APRA, the prudential regulator of banks, insurance companies and superannuation funds.

Mrs Helen Rowell BA FIAA was appointed as Deputy Chairman of APRA in November 2015.

Mrs Rowell joined APRA in 2002 as General Manager, Industry Technical Services and was appointed APRA Member, with primary responsibility for superannuation, for a five-year term from 1 July 2013. 

Prior to that, Mrs Rowell held other senior roles including General Manager, Policy Development, General Manager, Diversified Institutions Division and Executive General Manager, Supervisory Support Division. 

She was the Chair of APRA’s (cross-divisional) general insurance industry group from 2006 to 2011.  Mrs Rowell has represented APRA at various subcommittees of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, on the FSB’s Supervisory Intensity and Effectiveness Group and was previously co-Chair of the Joint Forum Financial Conglomerates Committee.

Prior to joining APRA, Mrs Rowell was a partner at the international consulting firm Towers Perrin; she is also a Fellow and past President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Anthony Asher is an Associate Professor with the UNSW Business School, currently teaching Part II Control Cycle and ERM courses. Anthony believes that the actuarial profession fulfils its social role by creating financial security for people.  His working life has been divided between universities, APRA and more conventional life insurance and consulting roles.  The major themes in his current research are the development of appropriate post retirement products and advice, and ethics and governance in the financial sector.

Paul Howes is a Partner at KPMG Australia and is the National Sector Leader for Wealth Management leading KPMG’s work in the superannuation, private equity funds management and wealth sectors. Paul is also the Partner in Charge of the KPMG’s Customer, Brand and Marketing Advisory practice which specialises in assisting clients across a range of industries to transform their organisations into more customer-centric ones, to build their brands and to apply more commercial rigour to their strategies.

Paul joined KPMG is 2014 from the Australian labour movement where he had worked for the previous 15 years including 7 years as the leader of the nation’s oldest and largest industrial union – The Australian Workers’ Union.

Paul’s professional experience prior to joining KPMG in the wealth sector came from his roles as the Deputy Chair and a Director of AustralianSuper (Australia’s largest superannuation fund managing over $110 billion on behalf of over 2.4 million members) between 2006 and 2014 and as an Alternate Director of CBUS.

William (Bill) H. Evans - Chief Economist
Managing Director & Global Head of Economics & Research
Westpac Banking Corporation

Hadyn Bernau is the Managing Director of Cause Way, a new actuarial and strategy consultancy looking to re-shape corporate and NFP decision-making by blending actuarial and relational thinking.  For example, how can better pricing decisions be made by incorporating their impact on customer relationship capital?  And how can practices of financial capital management be applied to relational capital?

Steve is a partner in Ernst & Young and leads the Australian quantitative analysis team focused on Banking and Capital Markets. He has worked across the financial services industry since 1991 advising on risk measurement, product design and asset valuation in the banking, wealth, and life insurance industries.

Steve is experienced in process automation and the use of interactive technology to facilitate a faster and richer interaction in the advice process. 

Elayne Grace is CEO of the Actuaries Institute. She was previously Deputy CEO and Head of Public Policy from 2013 – 2017, responsible for the development and implementation of the Institute’s public policy strategy. Elayne has 25 years’ international experience with leading consulting firms and major insurers. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK) and has a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Finance.

Geoff Atkins is a Principal of Finity, and has been consulting in general insurance since 1984. Geoff’s experience covers a wide range of insurance issues in both the public and private sectors. He has been an adviser to many insurance and reinsurance companies and also to a number of CTP and workers compensation schemes in Australia and NZ.

Michael Rice (CEO, Rice Warner) specialises in providing strategic advice to financial institutions, fund managers, government agencies, industry associations and large superannuation funds. Michael is the Chief Executive Officer of Rice Warner, which he founded in December 1987. Michael heads up Rice Warner’s public policy work.

Michael has undertaken pioneering research into Age Pension dependency and trends. He has a keen interest in the integration of social security and superannuation as well as measuring the adequacy of retirement incomes.

He was Chairman of QSuper’s Investment Committee from January 2009 to June 2013 and remained an independent investment expert on the committee until March 2016. He is a former Councillor of the Actuaries Institute.

Michael is also a member of the Advisory Board of the ANU College of Business and Economics. He was appointed to the StatePlus Board in October 2016.

Michael is convener of the Actuaries institute’s Public Policy Committee and was awarded Actuary of the Year for 2017.

Tim Howell
Head of Propositions 
Zurich

Tim Howell was appointed the Head of Propositions Zurich’s Life and Investments business in June 2017, after a long career with Zurich in senior actuarial positions. 

In his current role based in Sydney, he is accountable for the development of Zurich’s life insurance and investment propositions – products and key services to support customers with contemporary and best-practice life insurance cover and investments. 

Tim held the position of Chief Life Actuary for Zurich Australia from April 2015 to June 2017 with responsibility spanning actuarial reporting, reinsurance and capital management of the Life and Investments business. During this time, Tim provided advice on product development and pricing initiatives and was a key member of the team that successfully completed the acquisition of the Macquarie Life risk portfolio in 2016. 

Prior to relocating back into the Australian Zurich team in 2015, he was the Director of the Actuarial Service Centre Asia Pacific based in Kuala Lumpur. Having established the centre in 2012, he led a regional team of actuarial professionals to support the life actuarial reporting for business units across the Asia Pacific. This included consulting to both start up and established businesses within the Zurich Group, and implementing governance best practices. Under his leadership, usage of the actuarial service centre expanded and the team built a reputation for high-performance. 

Prior to joining Zurich in 2009, Tim held management and actuarial roles at Ernst & Young and Tower Australia. Tim is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Malcolm Weir
General Manager of Life Customer Solutions 
CommInsure

Malcolm is responsible for creating Simple and Seamless services for CommInsure’s Life Insurance clients and customers from the point of application through to paying a claim.

Malcolm has over 20 years Financial Services experience. He first joined the Commonwealth Bank Group as General Manager of CommInsure’s Life Customer Services in September 2016 and has recently been appointed to General Manager of CommInsure’s Life Customer Solutions in November 2017.

Prior to joining CommInsure Malcolm spent almost five years in a similar role at AMP, leading the Insurance Operations function. During this time Malcolm worked on the integration of the former AXA and AMP.

Malcolm is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has held roles in Finance, Strategy, Reinsurance and Operations in South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and Australia.

Brett Clark

Appointed Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of TAL on 1 April 2015. Joined TAL in August 2008 as CEO of TAL Retail Life responsible for TAL’s life insurance operations for the Retail Financial Advice market. In May 2013, appointed CEO of TAL Life with responsibility across TAL’s Retail Life, Group Life, Investments and financial advice businesses. A qualified actuary having previously worked in a range of senior executive roles over many years, gaining a deep industry experience across a broad range of functions including Strategy, Finance, Sales, Product and Marketing and Operations in both the Australian and international insurance markets. Brings a considered and commercial approach to insurance markets and leadership across TAL's diversified life insurance business. Member of the FSC Board of Directors and Executive Officer of Dai-ichi Life Holdings.

Adrian Rees 

Adrian joined APRA in 2004 and has supervised a wide range of ADIs, insurers and superannuation trustees.  He has been a General Manager in the Diversified Institutions Division since January 2012.

Presently Adrian supervises the wealth sector entities covered by Diversified Institutions – the major life insurers, a number of major superannuation trustees and also life reinsurers.  Adrian currently chairs APRA’s Life Insurance Industry Group.

Immediately prior to joining APRA, Adrian worked for two years at ASIC in licensing and surveillance.

Before that, Adrian worked in the private sector in funds management, superannuation and life and general insurance.  In total he has over 37 years of industry experience.

Dr Sally Phillips

Sally joined TAL in April 2016 as General Manager, Health after 7 years at Macquarie Life where she was responsible for managing the underwriting and claims teams as well as leading the insurance proposition.

Sally has a background as a medical doctor and has spent nearly 20 years in the Australian, South African and UK Insurance industry working in strategic leadership positions, product design, marketing, sales and distribution roles. She has extensive experience in product, claims and underwriting, and in particular the ability to review these functions from a customer perspective as well as a business point of view.

Sally is passionate about challenging the norm, and is always looking for innovative ways to deliver to the needs of customers both from a product, risk and service perspective. Her role managing the Health Services team at TAL allows her to focus on adding value from a holistic health and medical perspective throughout the customer journey.

Briallen Cummings

Briallen is a partner within KPMG’s Actuarial and Financial Risk practice.

She is a qualified actuary with over 20 years’ experience specialising in life insurance and wealth management and has spent the last 2 years working with companies implementing IFRS 17 across the ASPAC region.

Damien Mu
Chief Executive Officer (Australia and New Zealand) and Director
AIA

Greg Martin, BA FIAA FFin FAICD CERA

Greg is the Chief Actuary & Risk Officer for ClearView Wealth Limited.

Greg has more than 30 years experience in life insurance and funds management, including in the areas of financial management, governance, product development, and capital and risk management.

He currently oversees ClearView’s actuarial team, group risk management and compliance team, and the group product team. Greg is also a director of ClearView’s two financial advice businesses. Prior to joining ClearView in 2011, he was a Partner of KPMG, where he provided actuarial advice to the industry for 17 years.

He has held 10 appointed actuary roles during his career and has been a member of various regulatory, industry and professional committees and Boards, advised regulators, and published a number of industry related papers and articles. He has been a member of the Actuaries’ Institute Council and was Institute President in 2008. He is a currently a member of the International Actuarial Association’s Actuarial Standards Committee.

Dr David Knox BA PhD FIAA

David is a Senior Partner at Mercer and Senior Actuary for Australia.  He is the National Leader for Research and Policy and the actuary to the Tasmanian and Western Australian public sector superannuation plans.  He is the author of the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index.

Before joining Mercer in 2005, David was at PricewaterhouseCoopers and prior to that was the Foundation Professor of Actuarial Studies at The University of Melbourne.

He has acted as a consultant to a range of financial organisations, in both the private and public sectors, specialising in the superannuation and retirement incomes area. He has spoken and written widely in this area and served on many Government and industry committees. 

David was an independent Board member of Australian Prudential Regulation Authority from 1998 to 2003 and President of the Actuaries Institute in 2000.  

Paul Watson is a Director of Berrill & Watson Lawyers, and runs their Brisbane Office. Paul is recognised as a leading lawyer in superannuation and life insurance disputes.

Paul has acted for consumers in superannuation, life insurance and financial advice disputes since 2003 and frequently runs education seminars for financial counsellors and other consumer groups.

Paul worked closely with Legal Aid Queensland and other consumer organisations to help with the many flood insurance disputes that arose after the 2011 floods in Brisbane. Paul also represented the people of Fernvale before the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry.

Paul is a current board member of Synapse, the Queensland Brain Injury Association and is an honorary life member of Palliative Care Queensland. 

Lucinda Brogden B.Comm., M.Psych.

Lucy has a strong commitment to helping others.  Her primary areas of focus are issues facing Women and Girls and Mental Health and Wellbeing particularly in the workplace.  She takes an evidenced based approach to problem solving and social investment.

Lucy has more than 25 years’ experience commercial experience with companies including Macquarie Group and Ernst & Young working in accounting, finance and organisational psychology. Specifically, Lucy has worked in trusted advisory roles with some of Australia’s leading CEO’s, Managing Partners, Ministers and Chairs.  In 2015, Lucy was named as one of the 100 Women of Influence in Australia.

• Chair & Commissioner, National Mental Health Commission
• Chair, Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance
• Chair, Australian Advisory Group for Suicide Prevention
• Patron, Partners in Depression
• Patron, Lifeline Northern Beaches
• Friend, Carers NSW
• Silver Medallion, Surf Lifesaving – Patrol at Bilgola Beach
• Founder & Patron, Sydney Women’s Fund

Brendan Burwood

Brendan Burwood is the of CEO of Chant West Holdings Limited (CWL). The company is a leading provider of research, consulting and software services to the superannuation and financial planning industries. It comprises of 2 core businesses, Chant West and Enzumo. Brendan has a solid track record in building, leading and growing businesses across a range of industries including financial services, aged care, digital media and entertainment. Most recently, he was co-founder and Managing Director of ipac Financial Care, a specialist retirement and aged care financial planning firm. 

Brendan holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Deakin University and has a Diploma in Financial Services. He also has an Executive MBA from Sydney University, where he was selected for membership to Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honour society for high scholastic achievement. Among his other directorships, he sits on the Advisory Board of the ANU College of Business & Economics. 

Brendan’s early career was as an investment analyst with Colonial Mutual Investment Management. From there he moved to one of the major record companies, BMG, where he was Strategic Marketing Manager for Australia and New Zealand. He was then appointed Director of Strategic Marketing at Sony Music, before in 1998 founding his own business, Rajon Music Group, which was acquired by Destra Media in 2004. He then co-founded Entertainment Masters, an online and catalogue marketer of music and digital entertainment, which was acquired by Interfine Sports & Entertainment in 2008. 

In 2009, Brendan co-founded ipac Financial Care. The business specialised in providing financial advice for clients entering a residential aged care facility. This is a complex area of personal finance, and the firm was established in partnership with ipac Securities. The company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of AMP Limited in 2011.

David Orford

David believes that retirees have yet to understand how to adequately provide income for the rest of their and their partner's lives that broadly increases with inflation. This would better provide peace of mind and lifestyle in retirement - a period that is increasing.

He has worked with governments for over a decade to make the changes to allow these products to be provided on an efficient and effective basis - which has now been achieved. 

Now the task is for superannuation funds and life insurance companies to offer these products and to educate our financial planners and fellow countrymen about the protection provided, so they can have higher income in retirement, a far better lifestyle and greater peace of mind. 

He is extremely interested in the financial well-being of our country and the financial and emotional well-being of our fellow Australians.

Greg is Chief Executive of Schroder Investment Management (Australia) Limited. He commenced his investment career in 1992 in Sydney as an Actuarial Analyst. Prior to joining Schroders he was the Head of the actuarial and asset consulting practice for Towers Perrin in Asia, based in Hong Kong. 

Greg began his career with Schroders in London in 2000 as a Japanese Equities Product Manager and has held the position of Head of Distribution, Australia 2001-2004, Head of Product, Asia Pacific in Singapore 2004-2006 and his current role as CEO, Australia from 2006 to present.

Ashutosh Bhalerao

Ashutosh is the Appointed Actuary of ClearView Life Assurance Limited (ClearView Life). Ashutosh has over  20 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Prior to ClearView in 2014, Ashutosh was the Appointed Actuary for Swiss Re Life & Health Australia Ltd. Ashutosh has also held other senior actuarial roles with Tower Ltd, Challenger International and AMP and has a wide range of experience in  product pricing , financial management and reporting, capital management, reinsurance, asset-liability management and risk management. 

He is currently a member of the LIWMPC and RMPC.

Bruce Phelps

Bruce Phelps is a Managing Director in PGIM’s Institutional Advisory & Solutions (IAS) group. He was previously Managing Director in the Quantitative Portfolio Strategy group at Barclays Capital/Lehman Brothers conducting client-based research on asset allocation, alternative benchmarks, risk modeling, liquidity measurement and evaluation of investment strategies. Prior to joining Lehman, Bruce was Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Lehman Ark Asset Management where he was responsible for managing MBS and structured product portfolios and developing risk and performance attribution models.  

Previously, he was Senior Economist for the Chicago Board of Trade where he developed new futures and options contracts and the exchange’s electronic trading system.  Bruce started his investment career as a credit analyst and foreign exchange trader for Wells Fargo Bank.  Bruce received an AB degree (Economics) from Stanford University and a Ph.D. (Economics) from Yale University. He is a CFA charterholder.

Sam Killmier

Sam is Director, Portfolio Design and Quantitative Analysis within the Portfolio Strategy Team at Future Fund.  He leads a team of quantitative strategists who provide portfolio risk and return modelling, systematised investment views and portfolio recommendations.  Sam’s team is also a major idea generator for portfolio risk management frameworks and reporting. 

Sam joined the Future Fund from Towers Watson Australia, where he started his career as an actuary and then moved into investment consulting and strategy.  Sam holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Phin Wern Ting

Phin Wern Ting is an actuarial manager at ClearView, with experience in valuation and pricing of life insurance products. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Certified Enterprise Risk Actuary (CERA) who has interests in creating career and professional development opportunities for members. Phin is also part of the Social Networking Actuaries Group committee. She is keen in promoting the actuarial profession and encouraging actuaries from different practice areas to network outside of work.

James Louw
 
James Louw is the Chief Actuary and Deputy General Manager at General Reinsurance Life Australia Ltd., responsible for pricing, risk acceptance and account management for both Australia and New Zealand.  James has been with Gen Re in the region for over nine years, and prior to that worked for Gen Re in Cape Town, South Africa.' 

Andrew Brown

Andrew is a Director at lead.first where he partners with clients to address their business strategies through developing effective leadership mindsets and practices. He also consults to Swinburne University of Technology, and lectures in Actuarial Practice and Control (Honours year) at The University of Melbourne. He has previously held senior executive roles as Chief Actuary for AXA Life Singapore, CFO for Philippine AXA Life and Head of Learning and Leadership Development for AXA Asia Pacific Holdings.

Anton Kapel

Anton now works at Challenger as CFO Life and Appointed Actuary. He was previously Chief Actuary at AMP and before that spent 20 years as a consultant with Tillinghast and its successors, working across the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe.

Anton's area of expertise include: risk and capital management; economic valuations; asset-liability management; distribution profitability; and product design and pricing.

He is a member of the LIWMPC.

Trang Duncanson

Trang has more than 20 years experience working with life insurance companies. She has implementation experience across the breadth of actuarial services, in particular financial reporting and valuations, regulatory capital and ICAAP production, Financial Condition Reporting, and appraisal valuations. She specialises in actuarial modelling /reporting process efficiencies, and have completed many actuarial transformation projects for clients with a view of reducing reporting timeframes and embedding these into BAU processes.

Trang led the Prophet Simplification Project at MLC Insurance, aimed at increasing transparency to reduce key person risk, and to create nimbleness in the models in order to meet the demands of multiple reporting bases.

At Deloitte, Trang specialises in model and process streamlining. She has led or worked on most of the major Prophet implementations and/or streamlining projects within the industry;

Trang leads the actuarial modelling implementation program for Deloitte, with a focus on ‘future proofing’ client solutions through Deloitte’s Exponential Actuary initiative. She is driving the go-to-market IFRS17 solutions with FIS (Prophet), launching this collaboration and the new IFRS17 libraries with the client event in Aug 2017; and supporting the Deloitte-SAP-FIS event in Feb 2018; 

Antony Claughton

Antony Claughton is an actuary with Finity Consulting, based in the firm’s Melbourne office.  Antony has seventeen years of experience in the insurance industry, and has worked within and consulted to companies and governments in Australia and the UK.  Antony sits on the Actuaries Institute Health Practitioners Committee and the AASB 17 Implementation Taskforce.  

At Finity Antony signs off with the Appointed Actuary for a number of health and general insurers.  He works on the valuation, pricing and capital work for a number of government schemes and regulators.  

Antony’s interest in IFRS 17 began while he was at KPMG from 2015 to 2017.  At KPMG Antony ran the actuarial support of the audits of multiple health insurers and government schemes.  He also supported the audits of multiple commercial insurers.   Working with the audit teams he was keenly aware that the industry needs to understand the impacts of the change to AASB 17.  

Brendan Counsell

Brendan is a partner in EY’s actuarial practice based in Sydney. He has over 18 years’ experience in the life insurance and wealth management markets in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Asia Pacific region.

He is actively involved in the interpretation and application of IFRS 17 through his professional and industry roles, including the AASB’s Transition Resource Group, the Australian Actuaries Institute’s IFRS 17 taskforce and the International Actuarial Association’s Insurance Accounting Committee.

Francis Beens

Francis is an actuary with Finity Consulting, and has worked in General Insurance for more than 12 years.  Francis has consulted to general insurers and accident compensation schemes on actuarial valuations, financial projections, capital, and modelling.

He is currently a member of the Actuaries Institute AASB 17 Implementation Taskforce, and the liaison between that taskforce and the Actuaries Institute General Insurance Practice Committee. 

John De Ravin

John is a recently retired actuary who spent most of his actuarial career in the Government Actuary’s Office and as an Appointed Actuary to the Australian operations of two of the world’s leading reinsurers.  He holds Bachelor degrees in Science and Economics (from ANU), an MBA from Macquarie University and a Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning from Finsia. He is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute and a CPA. He has won numerous prizes, awards and scholarships.

His interests are in financial planning and investment and he is an enthusiastic member of the Institute’s Retirement incomes Working Group. He has held many roles within the Actuaries Institute and was on Council from 1999 to 2001. 

He has written about twenty papers on a variety of actuarial topics, and also, since his retirement, a book about personal financial strategies, Slow and Steady: 100 wealth-building strategies for all ages. 

Grant Robinson

Grant Robinson is a Senior Actuary on AMP’s IFRS 17 project. Prior to this, Grant headed up AMP’s Actuarial Systems and Process team. He is currently a member of the AASB’s Insurance Transition Resource Group and the Actuaries Institute AASB 17 Implementation Taskforce. He has been involved in development of the IFRS Insurance Standard since 2007. When not actively involved with the new insurance standard, through work and participation in the International Actuarial Association’s Insurance Standard drafting groups and the AASB 17 Insurance taskforce, he relaxes by trying to catch fish from his sailing kayak.

Paul Scully

Paul is a non-executive director and consultant working through Decision Horizons. He was CEO of ING Investment Management for the Asia Pacific at the end of his executive career and has since served on the boards of REITS, major superannuation funds and financial planning firms, and advisory committees in affordable housing, unlisted real estate funds and funds management. His is currently consulting with several pension funds in the Pacific Islands.

His interests are in financial planning and investment and he is an enthusiastic member of the Institute’s Retirement incomes Working Group. He has held many roles within the Actuaries Institute and was on Council from 1999 to 2001. 

He has written about twenty papers on a variety of actuarial topics, and also, since his retirement, a book about personal financial strategies, Slow and Steady: 100 wealth-building strategies for all ages. 

Kranthi Ram Nekkalapu

Kranthi is a Senior Data Scientist within the analytics practice at Deloitte Australia with close to 7 years of experience. Prior to joining the Australian firm, he worked with the US and India Deloitte practices leading teams and providing end-to-end solutions to complex business problems. He helped many organizations across multiple industries such as insurance, fraud detection, retail, C&IP and public sector uncover insights about their customers using data driven analytics. 

Kranthi has published numerous publications and is a regular speaker in various analytics forums, talking about artificial intelligence, deep learning and behavioural science. . 

Basem Morris

Basem is a Data Analytics Actuary at Deloitte Australia with a focus on enabling businesses to use analytics to realise the power of data. Prior to that he worked in London as an independent risk analytics consultant to some of the largest European, Asian and Australian financial institutions as well as holding a management position with Deloitte UK.

His experience spans analytics, general insurance, counterparty credit risk modelling, derivatives pricing and futures trading.

Outside of work, Basem enjoys playing, watching, and talking about football (soccer).

Richard Lyon 

Richard is Head of Actuarial (Individual Risk) at TAL, a position that he has held since October 2016.

Previously, he was a Director of the actuarial consulting firm PFS (Professional Financial Solutions), based in Martin Place in Sydney.

In addition to his current role and his many years of consulting, Richard has been CFO of a medical indemnity underwriting agency, Chief Actuary of a life office and a Partner in the actuarial practice of an accounting firm. None of that experience particularly qualifies him to opine on the cost of housing.

Richard has served on several committees of the Actuaries Institute and was a member of Council in the dim and distant past. Very little of that is particularly relevant to this presentation.

Younger members would know Richard through the Control Cycle textbook, of which he is a co-author and co-editor. The Control Cycle is definitely relevant to this presentation.

Being the father of three young adults, all contemplating the future affordability of housing, definitely qualifies Richard to express an opinion on the cost of housing.

Richard’s presentation addresses the cost of housing as part of wider research into inter-generational equity. Like many actuaries, Richard has been aware of the Treasurer’s Intergenerational Report (IGR) since the first was released in 2002 and thought that they were a GOOD THING. Serving on the taskforce for the Institute’s response to the 2015 IGR opened his eyes to some of the deficiencies in the report.

Co-writing the paper Lies, Damned Lies and the 2015 Intergenerational Report (presented to the Institute’s 2016 Financial Services Forum) helped him to see so much more about what is wrong with the IGR. This was followed in 2017 by Fair’s Fair: A Discussion of Intergenerational Equity, a presentation in which Richard explored a few aspects of measurement of intergenerational equity, including housing.

Now he has focused his attention on housing.

Sean McGing 

Sean is Managing Director of boutique consulting firm McGing Advisory & Actuarial, based in Melbourne.

He is an actuary and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Sean’s passion is helping people.  He loves using his skills, experience and insight to help people understand complexity, have increased awareness of risk and opportunity and improve financial and non-financial outcomes. 

Sean works on, and for, Boards and their advisory committees, and advises senior management, of Corporates and Not For Profits on financial, operational and regulatory matters, and risk management.  He mostly works in financial services – superannuation, wealth management, life insurance and investments.

Sean’s previous publications for the Actuaries Institute have covered board leadership, risk and culture, investment risks, retirement income costs, innovation in superannuation, modelling risk and online strategies.

Justine Sefton 

Justine is a climate change and sustainability specialist with 20 years’ experience across public and private sectors, in New Zealand and internationally. Throughout her career, Justine has worked at the cutting edge of the shift to a low-carbon, sustainable global economy, and re-directing capital for that purpose. 

She has advised companies and institutional investors on integrating sustainability risks and opportunities into governance and investment decision-making; shaped public policy, finance and reporting architecture at local and multilateral levels; and provided technical assistance and capacity building to developing countries. 

As a Senior Analyst in the Responsible Investment team at the NZ Superannuation Fund, Justine led development of the Fund’s Climate Change Strategy, and more recently, helped Australian industry super fund, Cbus, with the same. She also advised NZ electricity ‘gentailer’, Mercury, on corporate sustainability best practice. 

Prior to that, she worked on a range of consulting projects – independently and with UK-based (now) Ricardo Energy & Environment – concerning low-carbon development and finance. Clients included the World Bank, European Commission and Member State governments and the US Center for Clean Air Policy. 

Previous roles were with: NZ Ministry for the Environment – as lead UNFCCC negotiator and advisor on international carbon markets; (then) BP Alternative Energy - supporting low-carbon power business development in Europe and Asia; and the UK Department of Transport and UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs - advising and drafting legislation on low-carbon transport and emissions trading policy. 

Justine began her career as an environmental and planning lawyer in top commercial law firms in Auckland (Simpson Grierson) and London (Simmons & Simmons). 

She holds an MSc Environmental Technology (Energy & Technology Innovation Policy) from Imperial College London and LLB (Hons)/BA from The University of Auckland (NZ).

Tyson Johnston is the Group Insurance Client Strategy and Solutions (CSS) Director at Pacific Life Re. Tyson is responsible for Pacific Life Re’s Group Insurance business, including developing and implementing the insurance strategy, product development, client management and helping to write and retain profitable Group business. Prior to joining Pacific Life Re, Tyson worked at EY as an actuarial consultant working with life insurers across Australia. Tyson is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

James Yap

James is a consultant in Deloitte Actuaries and Consultants. He is a qualified Actuary, with experience in general and life insurance, financial services and data analytics. He has a keen interest in climate risk, and is a member of the Actuaries Institute Climate Change Working Group. 

James co-authored the article “Forecasting Disability: Application of a Frailty Model” appearing in the Scandinavian Actuarial Journal in 2017.

Michael Thomas 

Mike is an experienced economist with broad-based expertise gained over two decades of practice. He joined the now Deloitte Access Economics in 2007, after 15 years working as an economist in financial markets with Credit Suisse First Boston, NM Rothschild Australia and ICAP. He has covered all sectors of the economy at various times, but now concentrates on economic and policy analysis of financial sector issues.  

He is Deloitte Access Economic’s lead for Financial Services and co-authored Deloitte’s submission to the Murray Financial System Inquiry. Mike has worked extensively with clients in banking and insurance industry, the industry peak bodies, and government.

Jeff Gebler is a Principal with Milliman in Sydney with 15 years’ experience in the financial services industry.  With a focus on retirement, Jeff’s work includes product development, pricing, capital, derivatives, and asset allocation.  

Jeff is the creator of Milliman’s Retirement Expectations and Spending Profiles which harnesses big data and goals based analytics to better understand the unique circumstances of Australian retirees and the assets required to support their future lifestyles. 

Jeff is a CFA charterholder and has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University. 

Diane Somerville is a Principal in Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants, with over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, specialising in superannuation and other employee benefits. During her career she has provided actuarial, consulting and strategic advice to many of Australia’s largest employers and superannuation plan trustees across all aspects of the superannuation value chain. 

Diane is a lead author of Deloitte’s biennial Dynamics of the Australian Superannuation System publication. She has a keen interest in how our superannuation system can support, and ideally improve, the retirement outcomes of all Australians in an environment of investment volatility and uncertain longevity. 

Diane is a member of the Institute’s Superannuation Practice Committee and the Accounting Sub-Committee of the SPC, and has recently led a working group updating the GRIS subject course materials for the Institute.

Jennifer Lang is CFO and Chief Actuary of Comminsure. She is the author of the popular actuarial blog www.actuarialeye.com

Jennifer has more than 20 years experience in the financial services industry, including work for life insurance companies, as an asset manager, and as a financial services consultant. 

Jennifer has written a number of papers to the Institute over the years including the choice of risk discount rates for the valuation of life insurance companies, and on asset liability modeling for life and general insurers.

Igor Balnozan 
PhD Candidate in the School of Economics, UNSW Business School.

Research interests include panel data methods and machine learning techniques.

Completed B. Actuarial Studies (Honours) at UNSW.

Edmund Stokes

Edmund is a Manager with over 9 years of banking experience specialising in Model Development, primarily for retail portfolios.

Edmund previously worked at NAB within roles that saw him develop credit decision models on the following portfolios: Small Business; Mortgages; Unsecured retail (i.e. credit cards, personal loans, transaction accounts and overdrafts).

Additionally, Edmund has built production models using traditional GLM and more recently built models using gradient boosting “GB” (a machine learning algorithm which is gaining popularity within the industry).

Edmund has also built comprehensive model validation suites, which utilize industry accepted metrics.

Throughout the course of his professional career Edmund has built up a strong core skill set in the following platforms: SAS, Oracle SQL, R.

Richard Weatherhead

Richard Weatherhead has over 37 years’ experience within the Wealth Management industry, in both Australia and the United Kingdom, including actuarial management, strategic planning, market analysis and business development.

Richard has advised most of the leading life insurers and superannuation funds in Australia on pricing, insurance risk management, claims process optimisation and product design.

After careers in wealth management and consulting, Richard is now Head of Insurance at AustralianSuper.  He was a member of the Insurance in Superannuation Working Group that developed the Group Insurance Code of Practice and chaired the Technical Committee of the ISWG.

Jon Tindall

Jon is a senior consultant at Finity Consulting and has over 14 years of experience in General Insurance and Investment roles both with consultancy and corporate exposure. Jon has previously held positions with Milliman Inc, JP Morgan and QBE Insurance, all based in Sydney.

Jon has been involved in a broad range of roles spanning insurance and capital markets as has significant expertise in hedging programs, asset allocation, capital modelling and alternative risk transfer techniques.

Jon has previously published a number of papers in the capital markets and alternative risk management space, including:

• “Weather Derivatives Pricing and Risk Management Applications” (2006)
• “Securitise This - The Structuring, Pricing and Risk Management of Insurance Securitisation” (2011)
• “Weather and Carbon Derivatives - Pricing and Managing Risk in the ART Market” (2010)
• “On the Theory of the Firm: What the Debt is Equity Anyway?” (2015)

Ajay Parshotam
FIA

Ajay is a Manager at Deloitte Actuaries and Consultants. Over his 10+ year actuarial career, Ajay's area of specialty has been in life insurer financial reporting. Ajay is a Fellow of the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). 

He has joining the Deloitte Melbourne office in January 2017 from Deloitte AIS in Johannesburg where he worked for six years. 

Over the past year he has been managing use cases to highlight new exponential technologies, and how these will disrupt the future of work for actuaries.  

Sue Brake is a Senior Investment Consultant and Head of Investment Organisational Effectiveness, based in Sydney. She is responsible for leading projects and advising clients on governance frameworks, setting of beliefs and objectives, organisational design, risk budgeting and portfolio construction.

Sue has over 28 years of experience in financial markets. Prior to joining Willis Towers Watson in 2016, Sue worked at NZ Super for seven years where she was responsible for the Fund’s long-term investment strategy, and the design and build of its investment portfolio. Prior to this she had been instrumental in the setting up of NZ Super, establishing in-house portfolio management capabilities, including currency and derivatives.

Sue also works as an external investment management expert for the International Monetary Fund where she has advised a number of sovereign nations on sovereign wealth fund management. Sue has previously held senior executive positions at the NAB Group and the National Bank of NZ.

Michael Blayney
Head of Multi-Asset Investments
BTIM

Michael joined BTIM in August 2017 and leads the Multi Asset Investments team. Michael has over 20 years’ investment management and consulting experience and joined BTIM from First State Super, where he was Head of Investment Strategy since January 2014. In this role, Michael was responsible for the establishment of an active asset allocation process and led the Fund’s Investment Strategy Team. Prior to this appointment, Michael was Head of Diversified Strategies at Perpetual for over five years, with portfolio management responsibilities for the manager’s range of diversified funds. Michael’s prior experience includes over 10 years in consulting roles at Watson Wyatt (now Willis Towers Watson) and NSP Buck.

Michael is a qualified actuary and holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland.

Yan Sun
Director of Business Development, APAC
AXA France Life & Health Reinsurance

Yan is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries Australia and Singapore Actuarial Society, with 13 years’ experience in financial services across life insurance, superannuation and investments. Yan joined AXA France Life & Health Reinsurance in 2016 in Singapore, where she is the business development director for Asia Pacific, part of AXA’s growing global life reinsurance operation.

Yan’s experience enables her to deliver insurance and financial outcomes for life insurance companies which meet the needs of a diverse range of stakeholders in identifying and managing risks across highly dynamic market landscapes, using reinsurance.

Before joining AXA France Life & Health Reinsurance, Yan worked in a variety of roles across life insurance and superannuation.

Her most recent role was at Aon Benfield, where she was the Director and Life Actuary working in the Asia Pacific Life Reinsurance team, based in Singapore.  Her primary role was to provide strategic advice with tailored reinsurance solutions for life and superannuation clients across Asia Pacific, in relation to structuring and designing the optimal risk transfer solutions via reinsurance.

Before this, she has also worked in actuarial consulting at Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants, asset consulting at Towers Watson and life insurance valuations at AMP.

Dr Damjan Vukcevic is a statistical data scientist specialising in statistical genomics and biostatistics. He is a group leader at Melbourne Integrative Genomics based at the University of Melbourne, and also an honorary fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.  He obtained his doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2009 where he was one of the contributors to the first large-scale genome-wide association study, which set the standard for the boom in genetics research that followed. Damjan’s current work focuses on developing and applying genomic risk prediction methods.

Stuart Wilson, CFA
Manager, ESG

Stuart Wilson is the Environmental, Social and Governance Manager at Sunsuper. His responsibilities include investee board quality assessments, governance research, engagement and ESG risk identification across all asset classes. He is also Portfolio Manager for Sunsuper’s Socially Conscious Balanced Option. 

Stuart joined Sunsuper in early 2011 from the Australian Shareholders’ Association, where he was CEO for a decade. He has also held roles at Colonial First State, the ASX Corporate Governance Council and the Financial Reporting Council.

Stuart has been awarded a Bachelor of Business majoring in both Finance and Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Meg Yang is a senior data analyst at Mercer. She worked at Mercer Consulting as an actuarial consultant for four years and is now a member of the Insights and Analytics team in Mercer’s Customer Wealth business. She is passionate about using data more wisely and efficiently to help grow more business and improve business cost efficiency.

Stuart Wilson is the Environmental, Social and Governance Manager at Sunsuper. His responsibilities include investee board quality assessments, governance research, engagement and ESG risk identification across all asset classes. He is also Portfolio Manager for Sunsuper’s Socially Conscious Balanced Option. Stuart joined Sunsuper in early 2011 from the Australian Shareholders’ Association, where he was CEO for a decade. He has also held roles at Colonial First State, the ASX Corporate Governance Council and the Financial Reporting Council. Stuart has been awarded a Bachelor of Business majoring in both Finance and Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Paul Caputo
Head of Australia and New Zealand 
Insurance Consulting and Technology 
Willis Towers Watson

Based in Sydney, Paul heads up Willis Towers Watson’s Australian and New Zealand Insurance Consulting and Technology business.

Paul has worked in a range of senior roles in the insurance sector in both Australia and Asia. His career of almost 30 years spans a broad range of roles and experience and includes Executive Directorships, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Actuary and Chief Financial Officer as well as establishing a life company in Asia. 

James Wu
Consultant
Insurance Consulting and Technology 
Willis Towers Watson

James joined Willis Towers Watson in 2005 and has over 11 years of experience in the Asia Pacific and European life insurance industries.

Most recently, James has been helping European clients with a number of capital model implementations, including the deployment of Solvency II internal models prior to model approval and further development of models for risk and capital management.

James is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

Kenneth McIvor 
Senior Consultant 
Insurance Consulting and Technology 
Willis Towers Watson

Kenny is a life insurance consultant and qualified actuary with over 10 years of experience in the industry.   

John Nicholls
Senior Consultant
Insurance Consulting and Technology 
Willis Towers Watson

John Nicholls is a Senior Consultant with the Insurance Consulting and Technology business of Willis Towers Watson in Melbourne.  

John joined Willis Towers Watson in Australia in 1990. His time with Willis Towers Watson has included four years working in the US, followed by four years working in Brazil. His work includes advising on mergers and acquisitions, reserving and capital management and the application of Australian IFRS-based accounting standards.

John is Willis Towers Watson’s technical lead on IFRS for life insurers in the Asia Pacific region. 

Matthew Larkin is a Director in Pacific Life Re’s Client Strategy and Solutions (CSS) team, helping to manage Pacific Life Re’s existing Retail business and develop new partnerships in the insurance market. Matthew is a qualified actuary (FIAA) with nine years’ experience in Australia, the UK, Ireland and the USA. 

After starting his career working in a large UK insurer, Matthew moved into consulting with EY’s Life Actuarial team in Sydney, managing large deliverables and key stakeholders across a wide range of actuarial projects. Since joining Pacific Life Re, Matthew has utilised his client management and actuarial knowledge to help build deep partnerships with clients, develop innovative solutions to client issues and use technology to improve customer experience in the market. 

Jeremy was the founder and Chairman of Vanguard Investments Australia (1996-2010) and served as a senior executive of The Vanguard Group for over three decades in the US, Asia and Australia. He was also founding chairman of Plum Financial Services. 

He is currently Deputy Chair of the Australian Centre for Financial Studies’ advisory committee, a director of NabWealth companies and chair of Nab’s asset management subsidiary. 
 
Jeremy is passionate about helping members get better outcomes through better assisted decision-making.

Darren Kennedy is Principal Adviser in the Retirement Income Policy Division of the Department of Treasury. His responsibilities include policy work to improve the retirement phase of our superannuation system, including both regulation and taxation aspects and Treasury’s central agency role on social security. Darren also worked on the development and implementation of the superannuation reform package announced in the 2016-17 Budget.

Darren has worked in the Department of Treasury for 17 years in most of the major policy groups. Major roles include senior adviser on the Financial System Inquiry in 2014 and working on secondment at the Department of Treasury, Papua New Guinea, as fiscal policy adviser for 3 years.

Darren holds both a Masters and Bachelor’s Degree (with Honours) in Economics from the Australian National University and recently completed an executive course on Behavioural Insights at the Harvard Kennedy School

Nick Callil

Nick Callil is Head of Retirement Solutions for Willis Towers Watson Australia and a senior member of the firm’s Australian business. He manages key relationships and provides strategic advice to some of Willis Towers Watson Australia’s largest clients. Nick has been with Willis Towers Watson for over 20 years.

Nick leads Willis Towers Watson’s research in the area of retirement strategy, and consults to leading superannuation funds and financial institutions on retirement and related matters, spanning topics such as default investment option design, longevity risk, safe spending rates in retirement, evaluation of retirement income strategies and asset allocation for retirees.  He also consults on risk tolerance modelling, demographic and retirement adequacy analysis, dynamic lifecycle strategies, retirement income projections and the use of fintech to devise retirement strategies and present retirement risks effectively.

Nick is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars in Australia and globally on risk, retirement, investment, and longevity related issues, and is the author of a number of papers on these topics. A qualified actuary, Nick is a member of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA)’s Super System Design Policy Council, and an Adjunct Fellow of Macquarie University’s Applied Finance Centre.

Nick is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and holds a first class Science degree with Honours in pure and applied mathematics from Monash University.

Adam Fusca
Head of Group Risk
Challenger Limited

Adam has over 20 years of financial services experience in Australia and the UK, with deep product, pricing and management reporting expertise. At Challenger he is responsible for growing the inwards reinsurance portfolio, primarily focused on the Australian mortality & morbidity markets. Adam works across both the Insurance & Superannuation market, working with Industry Funds, Life Insurers and Reinsurers, creating solutions to help improve customer outcomes.

James Hickey

James Hickey has worked with Deloitte for over 20 years. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia (FIAA) and a Partner in the Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants team based in Sydney. Over his years with Deloitte, he has worked in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

He is also the lead author of a number of banking publications including Deloitte Australian Mortgage Report (2005 - 2014) and the Equity Release Market Survey (2006 - Now)

Andrew Doughman is a Senior Underwriter and Client Manager at Hannover Re, the 3rd largest Reinsurer both in Australia and globally. Andrew is responsible for servicing clients across Australia and New Zealand for all casualty lines including Public and Products Liability, PIDO, Medical Malpractice, Workers Compensation and CTP. Prior to Hannover Re, Andrew worked in General Insurance consulting as a Senior Manager for EY as well as in Product Management for the Workers Compensation portfolio at Suncorp. Andrew is also a member of council for the Actuaries Institute and currently chairs the Housing Affordability Working Group. 

Andrew Howard is Interim CEO at REST Industry Super. Appointed Chief Operating Officer on 14 April 2015, Andrew has led the delivery of high quality products and services to REST’s almost two million members and over 160,000 employers.  In February 2018 Andrew was appointed Interim CEO to lead the business until Vicki Doyle joins REST as CEO in May 2018.

Prior to joining REST, Andrew worked for over 12 years with the National Australia Bank group (NAB) in the Wealth Management division including; Asset Management, Corporate Superannuation, Financial Planning and Insurance. His general management positions included General Manager People and Culture for NAB Wealth, General Manager Group and Direct Insurance for MLC Insurance and General Manager, Distribution and Client Management for NBA Asset Management. Andrew also worked as a management consultant with Accenture for 7 years.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Master of Psychology (Honours) in Organisational Psychology from the University of New South Wales. He is a Registered Psychologist in NSW and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Andrew chaired the Life Insurance in Super Code of Practice released in November 2017 and also serves on the Program Committee for FEAL.

David Rush has over 30 years’ experience, and has extensive and deep involvement in the development, interpretation and implementation of insurance accounting standards, including membership of the AASB Transition Resource Group for AASB 17, and membership of the Insurance Accounting Implementation Taskforce of the Actuaries Institute. 

David has previously worked at KPMG Actuarial as a Director, at APRA where he was a senior executive, responsible for matters across Life and General insurance, Superannuation and ADIs, and also at AMP.  Over the years, he has also been a member of a number of committees with the Actuaries Institute.  

Dan Taylor is General Manager of Innovation at TAL, Australia’s leading specialist Life Insurer, where he leads the innovation team including TAL’s Accelerator, Incubator and Data Lab.

Dan has been at the frontline of corporate innovation for over 15 years, and has developed and launched everything from digital payments technologies to smart home products, and insurance chatbots, and even founded some of his own businesses along the way.

Dan is a published author - The Secrets of Big Business Innovation - with deep expertise in customer-led proposition design and delivering innovation in the corporate environment.

David Bell is a lead author in relation to MDUF v1 and the Chief Investment Officer of Mine.

He has 20 years of experience in investments, portfolio management, retirement outcomes, and risk management. He has managed investment portfolios and investment teams, and consulted to and educated many groups onshore and offshore within the financial services industry, as well as academia.

At Mine, his team of 10 manage close to $10 billion in member retirement savings. David is responsible for overseeing the investment portfolio, enhancing the skills and capability of the investment team, and is involved in product development.

David holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Newcastle and a Master of Applied Finance from Macquarie University. He is currently studying towards a PhD on investment management at the University of New South Wales and is an honorary fellow at Macquarie University, where he lectures on hedge funds.

Sharanjit Paddam is a consulting actuary with over two decades of experience in financial services. He acted as appointed actuary to four Australian insurers and reinsurers.

Sharanjit specialises in providing advice to banks and insurers on climate risks and opportunities, including transition and physical risk analytics, and disclosure under the FSB’s recommended standards (TCFD).  He has co-authored a number of papers on climate risk and financial services, and is the convener of the Actuaries Institute’s Climate Change Working Group.

Klaas Stijnen is an insurtech founder, specialist financial modeller, business actuary, and consultant with over a decade of experience working with some of the world’s largest insurance brands, including PWC and Deloitte.

He is currently Managing Director and Founder at Montoux, a company built to solve the challenges he witnessed first hand in insurance product development, with a powerful actuarial platform providing more insightful, highly detailed pricing analytics quickly and easily.

Klaas is also a recognised thought leader within the insurance industry. He regularly contributes to industry events and publications, sharing his experience in change and innovation within life insurance product development.

Magnolia Aspiras is a senior actuary at Deloitte Actuaries and Consultants based in Sydney.  She is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the  UK, and the Society of Actuaries in the US. She is also a fellow of  the Life Management Institute. She has a masters degree in applied mathematics in actuarial science.

Magie has over 19 years of experience in several markets including United Kingdom, Asia and Australia and has held various roles across the breadth of actuarial function.

Magie is the lead manager for the Business Performance - Pricing proposition and has a keen interest in innovating the traditional pricing process given latest developments in technology, market, and regulation.

Alan Merten joined Deloitte as a Partner in the Actuaries & Consulting group in early 2016.  He is an actuary who has always used his technical and financial expertise in the insurance industry to advise or lead businesses to improve performance.  During his career he has held corporate Appointed Actuary, CEO and Board roles as well as led various business functions within insurance and wealth management organisations.  Al has successfully stepped between major consulting firms and a variety of corporate environments over 30 years of experience.  He has worked in developed and developing markets across three continents over his career, most substantially in the Asia-Pacific region.  This enables him to bring an empathetic and pragmatic approach to supporting his clients with their business imperatives.

Al’s area of focus in consulting is leading and working with multi-disciplinary teams on providing assurance and advisory services as an industry expert to senior executives in insurance and wealth management.  His client engagements are focused on helping leaders improve the performance of their businesses. 

Caroline Bennett is the National Leader of Deloitte Actuaries & Consultants team, the Regional Leader for the Actuarial business and is also member of the Global Deloitte Actuarial Executive Team.

Caroline has had extensive experience with major life insurers and wealth management organisations including AIA and NAB. She was also engaged by NAB to become Appointed Actuary for the NMLA entity. 

Ajay Parshotam (FIA) is a Manager at Deloitte Actuaries and Consultants. Over his 10+ year actuarial career, Ajay's area of specialty has been in life insurer financial reporting. Ajay is a Fellow of the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA).

He has joining the Deloitte Melbourne office in January 2017 from Deloitte AIS in Johannesburg where he worked for six years.

Over the past year he has been managing use cases to highlight new exponential technologies, and how these will disrupt the future of work for actuaries. 

Chris Scheuber is an actuary with over 10 years’ experience in the life insurance industry and he is currently the Head of Actuarial, Capital & Risk Management at MLC.

Chris is leading the AASB 17 project at MLC to understand the implications of AASB 17 on MLC, the many potential interpretations and the work involved to implement the new accounting standard. He is also active within the profession, both as a member of the Institute’s Life Financial Reporting Sub-Committee and an active contributor to three of the AASB 17 taskforce’s working groups.

He is undertaking this presentation to provide a constructive view regarding APRA’s response to AASB 17 to assist them to continue their robust prudential oversight of life insurers without significantly adding to reporting requirements.

Stuart Wilson is the Environmental, Social and Governance Manager at Sunsuper. His responsibilities include investee board quality assessments, governance research, engagement and ESG risk identification across all asset classes. He is also Portfolio Manager for Sunsuper’s Socially Conscious Balanced Option.

Stuart joined Sunsuper in early 2011 from the Australian Shareholders’ Association, where he was CEO for a decade. He has also held roles at Colonial First State, the ASX Corporate Governance Council and the Financial Reporting Council.

Stuart has been awarded a Bachelor of Business majoring in both Finance and Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Keith Chong is a Director in Deloitte’s consulting practice specialising in valuation, actuarial modelling and financial reporting. Keith has over eight years of experience in the Australian insurance industry and has also spent seven years in the UK, including a role there as a Solvency II project actuary.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Keith spent five years at KPMG Australia and was involved in a number of actuarial modelling and capital related projects for a number of major life companies in Australia and New Zealand.

Keith is a Prophet modelling expert and runs the only industry Prophet user group in Australia. Keith conducted an industry wide actuarial modelling survey during 2016 to benchmark the modelling practices and system governance process in Australia.

The key actuarial/Prophet modelling projects that Keith worked on include:

• Solvency II Prophet implementation for a major life insurer in the UK.
• Comprehensive review and rationalization of the Prophet models for a major life insurer in the UK as part of the company’s finance transformation project.
• Providing SME support for a major Prophet model simplifications project in Australia, including model design.

Jason How has worked in a diverse range of actuarial functions in Australia and New Zealand. He joined Munich Re Australia four years ago, where he specialised in setting terms of trade assumptions for lump sum claims and lapses. Recently Jason relocated to Munich Re's regional office based in Singapore. He is taking up new challenges to review lump sum claims experience across multiple countries. He brings an international lens and in-depth knowledge about the Australasian market. Jason is passionate in finding out insights on observed experience and tracking down drivers behind.

Dr Matthew Paul, chief medical officer of Munich Re Australia,  is an occupational physician with 20 years of clinical experience. Specialising in assessment of work capacity, impairment and disability. With industry experience within workers compensation, health insurance, CTP insurance, life insurance and reinsurance.

Zoe Song is a pricing actuary at Munich Re Australia with more than 10 years of experience in life insurance industry. She has gained valuable experience in a range of roles across pricing, valuation, business planning and management reports. Zoe is passionate about providing sustainable protection, peace in mind and support to those in need.   

Jim Hennington is a consulting actuary involved in a number of Fintech initiatives.  These include a full stochastic retirement modelling engine (accessible by API), a new investment linked annuity product, and a digital advice platform used by the clients of accountants. 

Jim has over 10 years experience marketing and overseeing retirement advice processes for households.  His experience includes working for the UK's leading provider of risk profiling and financial planning software used by over 5,000 advisers.  

Jim co-wrote the paper "10 Good Practice Principles for Retirement Phase Modelling" and was the architect of several market leading retirement adequacy tools.

Tony Bofinger was, until recently, the Chief Financial Officer of Challenger Limited’s Life Division, as well as being the Appointed Actuary of Challenger Life Company Limited (CLC), Australia’s largest provider of annuities.

Tony is now transitioning into the role of Chief Risk Officer for Challenger Limited, which he will commence on 1 July 2018.

Tony has extensive experience in the life insurance industry and, prior to joining Challenger in February 2004, worked in actuarial and management roles in life reinsurance, direct life insurance and consulting.

Luke Cassar is a Senior Consultant at Finity Consulting.  He qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2014.  Through his experience working with Lenders’ Mortgage Insurers he has developed an interest in housing affordability and how financial services can assist people in owning their own homes.  He also has experience in helping insurers use customer analytics to grow profitable business.

Ian Yates is Chief Executive of COTA Australia, the national peak body for COTAs (Councils on the Ageing) in each State and Territory. Ian has played national leadership roles in COTA since 2002 after being Chief Executive of COTA SA since 1989. He serves on a wide variety of federal government and aged care sector national bodies including the Aged Care Financing Authority, the Aged Care Quality Advisory Council, the Aged Care Sector Committee and the Aged Care Workforce Taskforce.

Ian is a Sponsor Member of the National Aged Care Alliance, chairs the Alliance’s Aged Care Gateway Advisory Committee and Co-Chairs its Aged Care Roadmap and NACA Blueprint Implementation Group.

Ian is also a member of the ASIC Consumer Advisory Panel and of the Advisory Board of the Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR). Other roles include Chair of the Management Committee of the Australasian Journal on Ageing; a Director of COTA’s membership services company and the Aged Rights Advocacy Service. He has held senior positions in public health governance in South Australia, and on the Flinders University Council for 20 years including seven years as Deputy Chancellor and Chair of both its Audit and Resources Committees and Alumni. Ian is Emeritus Deputy Chancellor of Flinders University and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate. He was awarded Membership in the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2005.

Luv Bhatnagar is a qualified Actuary with over 8 years of experience in the life insurance industry, including 6 years working for a Big 4 consultancy and 1.5 years working for a global life reinsurer.  He is currently working as the Deputy Appointed Actuary at ClearView, a role that spans across all Actuarial functions.  He has worked across a wide range of projects, across all aspects of Life office actuarial management. 

Hadas Danziger is an integral member of the consulting team providing actuarial advice on a wide range of projects for superannuation funds including benefit design, benefit harmonization, IAS19 and US GAAP accounting and actuarial valuations. She is a core member of the Post Retirement Solutions team providing her valuable technical skills in post-retirement products, research and fund strategy advice.

Hadas is a core member of various Willis Towers Watson research project teams with critical technical knowledge in stochastic modelling.  She also has strong knowledge and expertise in Asset-Liability Modelling, Accounting Valuations, Benefit Design and Fund Policy. Hadas also chairs Willis Towers Watson’s Stochastic Modelling and Research Team.

Hadas has over 11 years’ experience in the retirement industry and has worked with a range of clients including manufacturing, transport, and engineering companies, working with both corporate funds and master trusts. Hadas has also worked with various industry funds and life insurance providers.

Hadas is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours in Actuarial Studies).

Thomas Sneddon, MActs, LLB (Hons), joined Willis Towers Watson in 2016 as an Actuarial Analyst primarily providing advice to superannuation trustees and corporate clients to assist them in providing for their members’ retirement income support needs.

He is also a member of the Retirement Solutions team, performing retirement income projections and estimates as well as software development for retirement income product and strategy solutions.

Thomas has 6 years’ experience having been part of the CSIRO-Monash Superannuation Research Cluster prior to joining Willis Towers Watson, and is a member of the Actuaries Institute’s Superannuation Projection and Disclosure sub-committee.

Leigh Kobus is Head of Actuarial Superannuation & Investments in CommInsure, a role which includes responsibility for annuity, traditional par and unit-linked business.

Leigh has had a strong focus on retirement products over the past 5 years, and has a keen interest in developing longevity protection solutions for the future.  

He has more than 25 years’ life insurance experience across a range of roles in South Africa and Australia including product development and pricing, distribution and valuations.  

Darren Wickham is the General Manager - Group Life Product and Pricing,  Investments and Retirement Incomes at TAL.   In his spare time he is also a trustee director of the Mercer Super Trust and other Mercer arrangements.

Darren is a member of the Institute’s Retirement Strategy Group and also the Retirement Income Working Group.

Darren is a former Actuary of the Year, officially making him an actuary of yesteryear.

Robert Kerr is a fellow of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries, he has worked in Australia for 3 years with Gen Re as a Senior Account Manager.