Plenary Speakers

About AZHAR

Azhar works in the Energy Transition team at FTI Consulting, supporting governments, investors and companies to shape their response to the ongoing energy transition. Azhar helps clients identify and assess commercial opportunities in energy markets, carbon markets, and low emissions technologies. He is also highly skilled in advising on the management and allocation of commercial risks. In his prior role, Azhar was the transaction manager for the largest corporate renewable power purchase agreement in Australia. 

About BERNARD

Professor Bernard Wong is Head of the School, Risk and Actuarial Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia, which has grown to be one of the largest and most successful actuarial departments in the world in both its education and research programs, including being global ranked #1 business school in risk, insurance and actuarial research. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, a Fulbright Scholar, and obtained his PhD from the Australian National University. His current research interests span two main areas: AI/ML enhanced actuarial methods for risk modelling, optimal decision making and capitalisation policy for risk businesses, as well as the interaction between the aforementioned problems. His research is funded via Australian Research Council Linkage and Discovery Project schemes, and he has been recognised via the award of numerous prizes, including the Hachemeister Prize and the Taylor-Fry Silver Prize. Bernard has taught most of the courses corresponding to the professional actuarial syllabus, with a particular focus in recent years in the areas of actuarial data analytics and in enterprise risk management. Bernard is currently on the Board of ASTIN, the non-life insurance section of the International Actuarial Association, and previously also served on the Australian Actuaries Institute Data Analytics Practice Committee. 

About JULIA

Julia is the principal actuary and Director of Guardian Actuarial, a boutique actuarial consultancy helping clients across a range of industries use data to solve complex people-oriented problems. She is leading a mission to foster forward-thinking leaders in the actuarial industry and runs the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program to help actuaries build their management toolkits and leadership skills.  

About NAOMI

Naomi is an actuary and a professional company director.  Following an executive career with Trowbridge Consulting and then Deloitte, Naomi became involved with the wider actuarial fields, including acting as adviser to the Australian Greens on various projects and advising a wide group of environmental organisations. She then embarked on a career as a company director, chairing the listed Australian Ethical Investments and sitting on the boards of funds managers, ASX listed companies and superannuation funds. She is currently Chair of Tasplan Super where she has led the fund through three mergers in the last four years.   She joined the Council of the Actuaries’ Institute from January 2020. 

About RADE

Rade Musulin is a Principal at Finity Consulting in Sydney, focusing on extreme events and climate risk. Previously he served as the Chief Executive Officer of FBAlliance Insurance, Chief Operating Officer of Aon Benfield Analytics Asia Pacific, and Vice President Operations, Public Affairs, and Reinsurance for the Florida Farm Bureau Insurance Companies. 

Rade serves as Chair of the Actuaries Institute of Australia Climate Change Working Group, Chair of the International Actuarial Association’s Resource and Environment Virtual Forum, and was Vice President – Casualty for the American Academy of Actuaries from 2016 – 2018. 

His main areas of interest include how changing population demographics affect catastrophe exposure, climate change adaptation, applications of catastrophe models for disaster planning in developing countries, building code development, and community resilience. Rade has maintained close ties with academic institutions, including being a lecturer for undergraduate classes in actuarial science, risk management, and political science. 

About David

David Gifford joined the National Disability Insurance Agency in August 2020.  

David is an actuary who has worked for more than twenty-five years across social insurance, general insurance and government in both consulting and organisational roles. David was previously Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Risk Officer at the Transport Accident Commission, and held consulting roles for more than fifteen years, at PwC and most recently Quantium.  

David has a Bachelor of Economics and an MBA from Melbourne Business School and is currently undertaking a Master of Public Health at Melbourne University.  

About Zilinka

Zilinka Jiang is the Executive, Global Markets at Quantium. Zilinka is a qualified actuary who works with businesses to design AI solutions, build expertise and drive return on investment across the banking, insurance, health and retail industries.

About Evelyn

Evelyn is an actuary with seven years' of experience in the life insurance industry. As a consultant at Finity's Perils and Climate Risk practice, Evelyn works in translating climate change projections into financial impacts for various types of institutions, including asset owners, banks, and insurers. Evelyn has experience in supporting clients with the delivery of adaptation strategy, roadmap development, and emissions reporting. 

Evelyn is a member of the Climate Risk Working Group (CRWG) at the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and the Resource and Environment Virtual Forum (REVF) with the IAA.