About Maia

Maia is a leader within the new School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University, looking at technology adoption from a human and earth lens. Maia loves working at the intersection between disciplines. After studying arts and science at university 20 years ago, she trained and worked as a science writer and has since held a variety of strategy, research, communications and business development roles. She holds a Master of Bioethics focused on emerging science and technology and has worked with some of Australia’s largest professional service firms and managed social research on issues such as mental health and corporate social responsibility. Maia is passionate about helping ideas and people find their place in a noisy, complex world, and manages a diverse team at the School of Cybernetics.

 

About Tim

Tim Flannery is the 2007 Australian of the Year.

In 2013 he founded, and is Chief Councillor, of the Australian Climate Council, Australia’s largest and most successful crowd funded organisation.

He is currently Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Climate Change at the Australian Museum, Sydney. Flannery has taught at Harvard University, and has advised governments both in Australia and Canada.

About Stan

Born in Griffith in south-west New South Wales, Stan’s mother is from the Kamilaroi people and his father is of the Wiradjuri.

Much of Stan’s childhood was spent on the road, living in small towns and Aboriginal communities. This gave him a love of adventure and stories, and despite poverty and an early sporadic education, he says it was his family and the larger Aboriginal community that gave him a strong platform for life.

Stan Grant is the Vice Chancellor's Chair of Australian/Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University and he just joined ABC News as an international affairs analyst with a special focus on China and will provide stories and analysis for various ABC television and radio programs including 7.30, Four Corners and The World, as well as ABC Online.

He is one of Australia's most respected and awarded journalists, with more than 30 years’ experience in radio and television news and current affairs. Stan has a strong reputation for independence and integrity and has interviewed international political and business leaders, including our own prime ministers and senior ministers. Prior to taking up his latest role Stan served for a decade as a Senior International Correspondent for CNN in Asia and the Middle East, broadcasting to an audience of millions around the world. Stan is an award winning and best-selling author of several books and has contributed articles to many major Australian newspapers, magazines and journals.

Stan Grant has a long and somewhat controversial professional history that has blended media with politics.

About Neil

Neil Howe is the Managing Director of Demography at Hedgeye Risk Management, an independent financial research firm, as well as President of LifeCourse Associates.  Howe is a renowned authority on generations and social change in America. An acclaimed bestselling author and speaker, he is the nation's leading thinker on today's generations—who they are, what motivates them, and how they will shape America's future.

A historian, economist, and demographer, Howe is also a recognized authority on global aging, long-term fiscal policy, and migration. He is currently a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Global Aging Institute, both in Washington D.C. Howe has co-authored numerous studies for CSIS (including the Aging Vulnerability Index and pioneering studies on pension reform in China and South Korea).

Howe has written over a dozen books on generations, demographic change, and fiscal policy, many of them with William Strauss. Howe and Strauss' first book, Generations (1991), is a history of America told as a sequence of generational biographies. Vice President Al Gore called it "the most stimulating book on American history that I have ever read" and sent a copy to every member of Congress. Newt Gingrich called it "an intellectual tour de force." Of their book The Fourth Turning (1997), The Boston Globe wrote, "If Howe and Strauss are right, they will take their place among the great American prophets."

Howe and Strauss originally coined the term "Millennial Generation" in 1991, and wrote the pioneering book on this generation, Millennials Rising (2000). His work has been featured frequently by media outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, and CBS' 60 Minutes.

Previous works include On Borrowed Time (1989; reissued 2004), a pioneering call for budgetary reform Howe co-authored with Peter G. Peterson, as well as The Graying of the Great Powers (2008) with Richard Jackson.

Howe received his B.A. at U.C. Berkeley and later earned graduate degrees in economics and history from Yale University.

About TAN

Tan Suee Chieh is the Past President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA). He has served on the IFoA council since 2017. He was the Group Chief Executive at NTUC Enterprise, the holding entity of the NTUC cooperatives in Singapore, from 2013 to 2017. He had been the Chief Executive of NTUC Income, a large composite cooperative insurer; President of Asia Pacific Region of the SHL Group Ltd, a British human resources consultancy firm; and a Regional MD and a Chief Executive of Prudential plc in Asia.

Tan Suee Chieh has a first-class degree from the London School of Economics (1981) and a master’s degree in organisational psychology from Columbia University, New York (2002). In February 2022, he was conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Heriot Watt University in recognition for being a pioneering actuary and his exceptional service to the actuarial profession.

About Amanda

Amanda Stevens is a renowned thought leader on the customer experience.

She combines current consumer insights with fascinating research into buying behaviour, delivering organisations and business owners powerful strategies for connecting with their customers.

She has consulted to some of the country’s biggest brands, including Lend Lease, Microsoft, Procter and Gamble and the Australian Liberal Party.

About John

John W. Robinson FSA 1994, FCA, MAAA was elected president-elect of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) in 2021.  He will become the SOA’s 74th president in October, 2022.  He is President & Chief Actuary of his own firm, Robinson Associates LLC.   

John retired from his role as an actuary with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the state's regulator for insurance, on July 30, 2021.  In that role, he was responsible for reviewing the actuarial components of the annual statements of the life insurance companies domiciled in Minnesota, and providing actuarial support to the reviews of life insurance and annuity product filings.  He also represented Minnesota on various NAIC Committees.  His prior roles were OPEB valuations (6 years), life insurance (23 years) and pensions (3 years).

John served as president (2010 to 2013) of the International Association of Black Actuaries, and (2013-2016) on the SOA Board of Directors.  He serves regularly as an SOA exam grader.  He currently serves on the SOA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Research Advisory Committee (DEIRAC) and the DEI Task Force, a subgroup of the Life Practice Council of the American Academy of Actuaries. 

His hobbies are music (plays a synthesizer and composes), sports and travel. A committed family man, he has hosted the Robinson Family Reunion triennially (except 2020) since 1996.

John holds a B.Sc. (Special) in Mathematics from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica, an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Delaware and an M.S. in Statistics from the Florida State University.

About Tony

Tony Silverman is a director of credit rating criteria, research and analytics at AM Best. Based in London, he is responsible for the generation, maintenance and implementation of industry-leading and globally-consistent credit rating criteria. He also authors commentary relating to insurance sector-wide issues, with a current focus on IFRS 17.

Prior to assuming his current role, Tony was a senior financial analyst and served as lead credit analyst on several major European insurers. He joined AM Best in 2013.

Tony is a member of the Insurance Technical Advisory Group of the UK Endorsement Board (which is responsible for adopting accounting standards in the UK) and also is a member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ Financial Reporting Group.

Prior to joining AM Best, Tony was the sector head of European financials at S&P Equity Research. He also spent five years with PwC, where he headed up global insurance research activity and consulted with clients on company valuations and strategy.

Earlier in his career, Tony was a director with the European insurance team at Deutsche Bank Equity Research and was ranked among the top analysts in industry standard surveys of U.K. fund managers. He also was head of European insurance equity research at Credit Lyonnais Securities, and was chief analyst at Inpro, an intellectual property company.

Tony is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and holds a mathematics degree from Cambridge University.