Organising Committee

Convenor

Melinda Howes, BT

Melinda is the General Manager of Superannuation for BT Financial Group. In this role she is privileged to be responsible for helping more than one million Australians live their best retirement.  Melinda is an actuary who has had a diverse career in financial services. Previous roles include Non-Executive Director roles in General Insurance, Director of Product Strategy and Services for AMP, CEO of the Actuaries Institute, Director of Policy at ASFA, and actuarial roles in life insurance and superannuation. She previously spent eleven years at BT from 1993.

Melinda is an Executive Director on BT’s Superannuation Board, and a member of BT’s Risk Review Committee. She’s also on the FSC’s Super Board and the Association of Superannuation Funds Australia (ASFA) Board as well as the advisory board of Macquarie University's Faculty of Business and Economics.

Superannuation Curator

Nicolette Rubinsztein, UniSuper

Nicolette is Vice President of the Actuaries Institute and a non executive director at UniSuper, SuperEd and Onepath Insurance. Prior to that she was a General Manager at Colonial First State/ CBA for 14 years and also on the board of ASFA for eight years. She is a graduate of AICD and also has an executive MBA from the AGSM. She is a UNSW Alumni Leader and on the  Macquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics Advisory Board. Nicolette is also author of the book, Not Guilty, about career mums.

Insurance Curator

Jennifer Lang, CBA

Jennifer Lang is CFO and Chief Actuary of Comminsure. She is the author of the popular actuarial blog www.actuarialeye.com. The views expressed in this article are her own, and do not reflect the views of her employer.

Jas Singh, SKL 

Jas is an owner and one of the original founders of SKL.  He is a qualified actuary with over 10 years’ experience in insurance/wealth management in Australia and the UK. He quickly established himself as a successful recruiter and now manages the business as well as senior recruitment assignments.  Jas prides himself on client service and is always seeking to improve himself and the business.

Superannuation Committee Member

Diane Somerville, Deloitte

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.

As a lead author of Deloitte’s biennial Dynamics of the Australian Superannuation System publication, Diane 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.

Superannuation Committee Member

Nathan Bonarius, Rice Warner

Nathan joined Rice Warner in early 2010 and is currently a Consultant in the Market Insights team.  He is responsible for the production of all of Rice Warner’s superannuation and life insurance research reports such as the annual Superannuation Market Projections Report.

Nathan is also responsible for the maintenance of Rice Warner’s research databases, the improvement of existing products and market opportunities for new products. He has also been actively involved in a range of consulting activities within superannuation including the provision of strategic advice, assistance with mergers, outsourcing and administration tenders, risk management and Actuarial valuations.

Nathan qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2014. Prior to this he studied at Macquarie University where he obtained a double degree, Bachelor of Commerce – Actuarial Studies and a Bachelor of Science majoring in Statistics.

Insurance Committee Member

Daniel Longden, KPMG
 
Daniel joined KPMG as a partner in 2017 and has over 24 years experience in the insurance and financial services sector with previous roles spanning insurance, reinsurance, superannuation, wrap platforms and investment management. He has deep life insurance expertise having held a number of business and finance roles, including Appointed Actuary, CFO and life company director.

Since joining Daniel has lead a number of client engagements including due diligence activities, life insurance licence applications, product development in the retirement income market.  He is also leading a project to introduce general insurance pricing techniques to the life insurance industry.

Insurance Committee Member

Colin Yellowlees, RGA

Raymond Bennett, Deloitte

Raymond is a Director at Deloitte Australia, with over twenty years of experience in the actuarial profession, mostly in consulting but also including four years of industry experience. He has been qualified as an FIAA since 2002. Ray has worked mainly in life insurance but has experience in other fields including general insurance. He enjoys M&A work and technical actuarial work in particular. Ray has lived all over the world including Australia, Malaysia, United Kingdom and South Africa and has worked in a number of countries as well. Ray has been involved in the actuarial profession and currently volunteers as a specialist lecturer on the online professionalism course for the UK IFOA. Ray enjoys reading, travelling and spending quality time with his wife and two kids.

Data – Angat Sandhu, Oliver Wyman

Angat Sandhu is a Partner at Oliver Wyman and leads their Australian Insurance and Wealth Practice. Angat is motivated to improve consumer awareness and trust in these sectors and believes the industry needs to further increase transparency and make better use of advances in technology and analytics. Prior to joining Oliver Wyman, he worked at Macquarie Group and Willis Towers Watson. He is an Actuary, a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and the Financial Risk Manager designation.

Eric has spent 30 years in corporate and consulting roles on financial and actuarial issues. His experience includes roles as a financial derivatives Dealer, a Treasurer, a Fund Manager, an Investment Banker and an Actuary for companies including Aust Re, GIO, Bankers Trust and Tillinghast. He has been involved in many start-ups and has written and presented papers on derivatives, regulation and finance.

Investment and Wealth Management – Andrew Fisher, SunSuper

Andrew joined Sunsuper in 2010 and is currently responsible for managing investment strategy incorporating Strategic Asset Allocation, Dynamic Asset Allocation and Risk. His recent experience has included roles with the Guardians of NZ Superannuation as an Investment Strategist and with Milliman as a Consultant. Andrew has over 15 years of experience in the investment industry and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, Australia.

Elayne Grace

Sarah Gibson