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Douglas Isles, Chair
Douglas initially joined Platinum in May 2003 as an investment analyst covering industrials and as primary communicator for advisor presentations. He previously worked for CBA as a product actuary and prior to this as an investment manager for Aegon Asset Management in the UK. Douglas left Platinum in October 2008 to work in Singapore where he helped develop Standard Chartered Bank’s equities broking business.
Douglas rejoined Platinum in February 2013, as Investment Specialist, acting as an intermediary between the investment team and Australia/NZ based advisers. Over time he built a team to support this effort, and since 2017 he has, in addition, been introducing Platinum to US-based investors. Douglas was appointed as Head of Investment in March 2022 and is responsible for the investment team’s process and people. He has been a member of the firm’s Management Committee since 2013.
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Anthony Lowe - Plenary Committee
Dr Anthony Lowe is a Non-Executive Director, Chair of Actuaries Institute's Public Policy Council Committee, and the former CEO of an NDIS service provider. He was previously CEO at Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, co-lead of the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Prostate Cancer Survivorship, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Griffith University.
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David Whittle - Plenary Committee
Actuaries Institute President 2024
David has had 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry spanning general and life insurance, multinational insurers and consulting firms plus roles in reserving, pricing, underwriting and general management and risk management. Until recently David was the Chief Risk Officer for CBA’s Wealth & Private business, and prior to that he was Chief Reserving Actuary for Zurich’s Asia-Pacific general insurance business across nine countries, as well having been a KPMG Partner and having held senior roles at Allianz Australia.
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Elayne Grace - Plenary Committee
CEO, Actuaries Institute
Elayne Grace, CEO of the Actuaries Institute, leads the actuarial professional body known for its education program, professional standards and contribution to public policy thought leadership.
With 25 years of international experience spanning consulting firms and insurance companies, she provided strategic, economic and financial advice. Elayne played a pivotal role in nurturing early collaborations between businesses, scientists, and NGOs to address climate change and risk. She is a frequent presenter at conferences and has contributed to various thought leadership papers ranging from climate change to Big Data. Elayne's advisory roles have included serving on Commonwealth Treasury expert panel and advising the Indigenous Land Corporation Board on long-term investment sustainability.
In 2019, Elayne was recognised in The Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence awards. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
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Lucy Jing - Plenary Committee
Lucy has extensive experience in the life insurance industry through her current role as Director in the valuation team at Pacific Life Re as well as her prior consulting role at EY. She is also the Chair of the Young Actuaries Advisory Board, where she hopes to drive better support for young actuaries moving through their career.
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Naomi Edwards - Plenary Committee
Naomi currently sits on the boards of TAL (Australia’s largest life insurer), Propel Funeral Partners and Yarra Funds Management Ltd.
An actuary by training, with an executive background in the financial services industry, Naomi has an Australia wide reputation in the financial services industry, having advised on many major life insurance and funds management acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand. She is a former partner of Deloitte, where she ran the Australian financial services Industry Group.
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Vanessa Beenders - Plenary Committee
Vanessa is Executive General Manager, Public Policy & Professionalism at the Actuaries Institute. In this role she leads the Institute’s thought leadership program, working closely with actuaries across a range of industries to deliver insights across key societal issues. She is also responsible for delivery of Institute support to its Practice Committees, of technical and professional support to its members thereby ensuring high-quality professional standards, and the Institute’s year-round events program.
Before joining the Institute, Vanessa worked across government, financial services and education in both public and private sectors. This included in the Commonwealth Department of Treasury, the Federal Treasurer's office, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Group and as a teacher.
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Win-Li Toh - Plenary Committee
Win-Li is a principal at actuarial and analytics consultancy Taylor Fry, with a special focus on cyber security. She leads the company’s general insurance practice, backed by more than 25 years advising insurers, self-insurers and government across the globe. Win-Li holds several Appointed Actuary roles and is 2023 Vice President of the Actuaries Institute of Australia. As lead author on the Actuaries Institute green paper Cyber Risk and the Role of Insurance, she provided crucial evidence for the industry to enhance its cyber resilience efforts. She also contributed meaningful discussion to mainstream media, broadening understanding of how insurance fits in tackling cyber risk. Today, she continues to bring solutions-focused insight and facilitate open dialogue between government, business and insurers amid an ever-evolving threat landscape. She was recently awarded 2023 Insurance Leader of the Year by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.
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Bronwyn Hardy - Health Curator
Bronwyn (Bro) works at Finity Consulting and has nearly 25 years’ experience in the private health insurance industry. She has been the Appointed Actuary for a number of private health insurers, as well as previously serving as the Senior Actuary at Teachers Health Fund for over 8 years. Bronwyn has been an active member of the Health Practice Committee and its various subcommittees, including management and oversight of the Private Health Insurance Online CPD Course and being on the organising committee of the 2016 PHI Forum and 2018 & 2022 Future of Health Seminars. In addition, she has been involved in a wide range of industry projects and working groups. Bronwyn co-authored actuarial papers related to the role of actuaries in health as well as peer reviewing a number of other actuarial papers relating to private health insurance. |
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Clement Peng - Risk Curator
Clement is a casual academic teaching Business Law and Finance discipline at the University of Sydney Business School, and Risk Management course at the UNSW.
Clement has been working in the Regulatory Compliance area of commercial bank to advise business units and management on legislative/regulatory changes, as well as over ten years prudential regulation experience at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, spanning across insurance and banking industries, having held various roles in Data Analytics, supervision, strategy and performance.
Clement is an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries Australia (AIAA) and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS). He is also a member of the Risk Management Practice Committee (RMPC), Climate and Sustainability Working Group (CSWG), and Banking Practice Working Group.
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Kaise Stephan - General Insurance Curator
Kaise is a Partner in Deloitte’s Insurance Solutions practice and has over 25years of general insurance and reinsurance experience in the Australian, New Zealand and APAC markets. He has filled a number of executive insurance roles in the industry including Chief Actuary roles and represented the industry in various professional and insurance bodies. Kaise has lead advice for insurance and reinsurance clients for services covering reserving, pricing, underwriting, claims M&A and transformations.
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Kitty Chan - International Perspectives Curator
Kitty Chan was appointed as the Liaison Manager, Asia of the Actuaries Institute since 2017. Based in Hong Kong, her work focuses on the engagement work for the Actuaries Institute’s Asia-based members. Kitty is an AIAA and previously practised in General Insurance in Sydney and lived in Taipei and Singapore before relocating back to Hong Kong.
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Kirsten Flynn - Life Insurance Curator
Kirsten is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries Australia and has more than 10 years’ experience in Australia and the USA, both in corporate and consulting environments, and across life insurance, general insurance, health insurance, superannuation, and banking. As Senior Pricing Actuary, Kirsten is responsible for leading pricing efforts for both individual and group life reinsurance business of a dedicated set of RGA Australia clients. In addition, she is involved in product design and terms, client and internal communications, and market research and development. |
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Michael Storozhev - Data Science Curator
Michael is the Chief Underwriting Officer at PassportCard Travel Insurance, where he is responsible for the actuarial, product and analytics, helping drive a customer-centric mindset in technical domains.
With almost a decade in travel insurance Michael has driven important changes, like removing mental health exclusions and introducing new travel coverages, while streamlining underwriting and harnessed AI for improved insurance products.
Actively volunteering with the Actuaries Institute Australia, Michael has contributed to data science strategies and research on fair insurance pricing with the Data Science Practice Committee, and previously the founding convener of the Young Data Analytics Practice Committee.
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Richard Dunn - Wealth & Investments Curator
Richard Dunn is a Principal in Mercer’s Investments business, based in Sydney. Richard works with clients across the superannuation industry and the endowments and foundations client base to provide insights on policy developments and deliver consulting advice across investment and actuarial matters. Richard brings a strong skill set in developing investment and business strategies which are tailored to the individual needs of clients. Prior to joining Mercer in September 2022, Richard worked for Deloitte following its acquisition of Rice Warner where he had worked for seven years leading strategy and research projects across the Australian financial services landscape. For this work Richard was awarded several prizes including the Melville Prize and the Andrew Prescott Prize. Beyond his role with Mercer, Richard leads the Investment Management and Finance and Education Faculty at the Actuaries Institute which is responsible for educating the next generation of investment actuaries. Richard holds a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) (Honours) from the University of New South Wales. He is a Fellow of the Actuaries Institute of Australia.
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Stuart Turner - Leadership & Professionalism Curator
Stuart Turner is an actuary with over 25 years of experience working in life insurance and wealth management. He is currently at Zurich Financial Services, and was previously a Partner at EY. Stuart is Chair of the Professionalism Committee, and has developed an interest in ethics through being a volunteer ethics teacher at his children’s primary school, and through presenting the Actuaries Institute Professionalism Course content on ethical reasoning.
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Tim Jenkins - Superannuation Curator
Tim Jenkins is an experienced actuary and superannuation professional. He is a Partner at Mercer Consulting and leads Mercer’s superannuation and actuarial services consulting team. He specialises in providing advice to superannuation fund trustees and fund promoters.
Tim is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and has been Chair of the Actuaries Institute’s Superannuation and Investments Practice Committee since 2018 and received the 2023 Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the Institute.
Tim has extensive leadership experience, and has previously led Mercer’s global defined contribution consulting, Asia-Pacific Retirement consulting and Asia investment consulting businesses. He was also CEO of Mercer New Zealand for five years. Tim moved to NAB and led the integration of the Plum Super and MLC Business Super product teams, before becoming responsible for NAB’s insurance in super offerings following the sale of MLC Life Insurance. He then moved to Rice Warner where he was Executive General Manager Superannuation and led Rice Warner’s superannuation consulting team. Tim rejoined Mercer in 2019.
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Sarah Duncan
Events Manager & Team Leader, Actuaries Institute |
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Zoe Carlyon
Events Manager, Actuaries Institute |