Tue 25 Jun 2024 - Join us as we celebrate 100 years since the first female actuaries and take a look forward at the next 100 years with a panel discussion led by IFoA President, Kalpana Shah. Staple Inn provides the perfect backdrop for this special event, a constant in IFoA’s rich history and the setting for what marked a new era of the actuarial profession.
Chair
IFoA President Kalpana Shah brings 30 years of business experience in the insurance and investment industry. She was longstanding Group Chief Actuary and Partner at Hiscox until 2016. She is now one of a handful of female Chairs in the insurance industry, a non-executive director of several organisations and a member of the Capacity Transfer Panel for Lloyd’s of London.
She is also a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers and member of Court of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries. She has Chaired and contributed to committees for the IFoA, Bank of England, Lloyd's of London and the Bermuda Monetary Authority. In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kalpana headed the first voluntary team of actuaries helping the UK’s National Health Service with emergency analytics and planning.
Kalpana is a regular judge for the Women in Insurance Awards and a frequent speaker on insurance and diversity related topics. Over the years she has been recognised for her work by organisations including the Institute of Directors, Financial Times, Cranfield University, Insurance Insider and Brummell Magazine.
Emma leads Hymans Robertson’s insurance and financial services consulting business. She has more than 25 years’ industry experience, previously working internationally at Swiss Re, Ernst Young, and Milliman as well as across the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
She has significant experience advising insurers, reinsurers, investment banks, and institutional investors, across the full range of mergers and acquisitions, fund restructures, portfolio transfers, product development, risk and capital optimisation, investment/ALM, Solvency II, and financial reporting for insurers.
Emma serves on boards within the Hymans Robertson group as well as on the court for the Worshipful Company of Actuaries. She was formerly Chair of the Board of the Investment and Life Assurance Group (ILAG) and Chair of the ILAG Financial Reporting Practitioner Group. She is also published editor of 2 longevity risk books by RiskBooks.
She is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion and is passionate about 3 things in life: work, family, and friends. In her spare time, she loves kayaking and brushing up on her windsurfing skills.
Emma is the Lloyd’s Chief Actuary and is the first female to be appointed to the role which oversees the Lloyd’s market.
She has been at Lloyd’s of London for 8 years, prior to which she worked in non-life insurance consultancy at Willis Towers Watson.
Emma qualified as a Fellow of the IFoA in 2013 and has previously fulfilled several volunteering roles, including representing the IFoA on AAE and IAA committees.
In 2021 Emma received a Business Insurance ‘Women to Watch’ award in recognition of her work and leadership in risk management and commercial insurance.
Emma is currently on maternity leave and enjoying discovering the joys and challenges of motherhood.
Fiona Dunsire took up the role as Government Actuary in November 2023. She joined GAD following 35 years in the private sector where she held a variety of roles across pensions and investments. She was UK CEO of Mercer from 2012 to 2019.
She has led teams around the world to deliver investment and retirement solutions to clients and supported a 3-year project with the World Economic Forum on transformational investment. She has been a Fellow of the IFoA since 1993.
Fiona is the first female Government Actuary since the post was created in 1917. She is an active advocate for diversity and a trustee of a charity whose purpose is to alleviate poverty and improve health in North London. She’s also a volunteer maths tutor for a charity supporting students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access top universities.
Fiona Morrison is an executive coach, mentor, and adviser working with a wide range of clients including senior and future leaders as well as new managers and professionals. Her own background in senior leadership within professional services enables her to work with clients to strengthen their leadership, influence, and confidence in meetings and presentations, their ability to manage challenging relationships, and their client relationship management. She has had particular success in helping clients to build strong project teams, drive diversity and equality, and in empowering women in leadership roles.
As a senior partner in consulting firm Lane Clark & Peacock LLP, she led client teams, and was the Chair of the LCP Professional Committee as well as creating its Women’s Network. She worked alongside professionals and clients from many walks of life. Clients came from FTSE 100 companies to small family-owned businesses. She has extensive experience of non-corporate business structures – as a partner in an LLP and in a traditional partnership, and as a senior volunteer in a Royal Chartered professional body.
Fiona is a past President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, only the second woman to hold this position. Fiona is passionate about diversity and equality and is a regular keynote speaker for both professional bodies and firms.
As a coach, adviser and mentor, Fiona brings examples and insights from her extensive professional experience, combined with her coaching and mentoring skills, to provide her clients with the opportunity to both practically and strategically address their business and career challenges and ambitions.
Fiona is accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC Global) at practitioner level in coaching and mentoring and accredited for the psychometric assessment Smart Collaboration Accelerator, launched in 2020.
1-3 Staple Inn Hall, High Holborn, London, WC1V 7QH