Regulatory Board

Prior to becoming Regulatory Board Chair, Neil was Chief Executive of the Legal Services Board, an oversight body for legal regulators in England and Wales. Before this he was Director of Investigations at Ofcom, leading a team responsible for enforcing competition law and regulatory rules applying to the communication sector.

Neil is a board member of the Personal Finance Society and the General Pharmaceutical Council. He qualified as a solicitor in 1990 and worked for a number of law firms in the City of London, specialising in international private arbitration. He has a master’s degree in regulation from the London School of Economics and an undergraduate law degree from Hertford College, Oxford University.

Oliver is the Senior Pricing Actuary for Great Lakes Insurance, a subsidiary of Munich Re. He has 3 decades of experience in the general insurance industry, initially in underwriting and consultancy before retraining as an actuary in the early 2000s.

He has a strong interest in climate change and economic theory and how these topics affect actuarial practice. He was the first chairperson of the IFoA Sustainability Board in 2013, served on the Research and Thought Leadership Board, and he currently co-chairs the Economics Member Interest Group. He is a director of Promoting Economic Pluralism and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity. Oliver was elected to IFoA Council in 2022.

David is a Senior Consulting Actuary with Buck and has over 35 years’ experience within the pension and life assurance industry with almost 17 years’ experience as a scheme actuary. David advises both trustees and sponsors. David is a member of Buck’s actuarial committee, Buck’s lead on PPF levy management and also a Senior Quality Assurance Representative for Buck. David was previously a member of the IFoA’s CPD Committee and a panel actuary for the IFoA’s Disciplinary and Capacity for Membership Scheme, having sat on some high profile cases. Recently, David was also a member of the GN30 Compensation for Professional Shortcomings Working Party.

Helen has a non-executive portfolio in insurance and the charitable sector, building on her 29-year career as a senior executive at AIG and Accenture with international operating experience and deep expertise in strategy, transformation, and governance in the insurance industry.

She is a collaborative problem solver with an academic background in philosophy. Her interests include the effect of change on people with special reference to cultural differences and organisational values, and the social, economic, and ethical impact of data. She is a Non-Executive Director of the Lloyd’s Managing Agent RenaissanceRe, and also holds non-executive positions with edtech charity Founders4Schools and The Data Lab. She joined the IFoA’s QAS Committee as a lay member in 2019 and the Regulatory Board in 2020.

David has just started an interim career, having spent 34 years working for RSA. During his time with RSA he worked in the UK, Denmark, and the USA primarily practising in general insurance. His main areas of focus have been reserving, and capital management and modelling. He was Chief Actuary for RSA Scandinavia’s businesses. David led RSA’s implementation of Solvency II, including the internal model approval process. He is a former chair of the ABI’s Prudential Regulation Committee.

Sue is an independent board member and consultant. Previously a senior Treasury official, Sue’s more recent experience includes:

• Chair of the FCA’s independent Financial Services Consumer Panel
• Trustee Director at The People’s Pension
• lay member of the Chartered Insurance Institute Professional Standards Committee and of the Chartered Banker Professional Standards Board

Sue has also been a beneficiary representative on EIOPA’s Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group and advised international organisations on financial education, financial inclusion, and financial services consumer protection regulation. Sue has a particular interest in how developments in data science will impact on regulation and consumer outcomes.

Simon has recently retired, having been a pensions and investment specialist for nearly 40 years. Simon has made a valuable contribution to the profession in a variety of posts, including involvement in the design and delivery of CPD and professionalism courses for new and experienced members. He has been an IFoA staff actuary, and an investigation actuary under the Discipline Scheme. For the past 6 years, Simon has been a member of the Disciplinary Board. Before he retired, Simon was a partner in the retirement and investment business at Aon, specialising in delivering investment advice to defined benefit pension schemes.

Edwin is a Senior Director at Willis Towers Watson, where he has worked for almost 30 years. He divides his time between advising the trustees of pension schemes, having held a scheme actuary certificate for 22 years, and advising the companies that sponsor such schemes. Edwin is a current member of the IFoA’s Practising Certificates Committee. He has twice been elected to IFoA Council. He is also a former member of Management Board, Nominations Committee, the Diversity Steering Group, and the DC Advisory Group, as well as several working parties dealing with actuarial regulation and education.

Mike is a partner at Isio, which was previously KPMG’s UK pensions advisory business. He has over 30 years’ experience delivering pensions advice to trustees and sponsors in a wide range of situations.  Over his career he has worked for a law firm, Big Four consultants, and employee benefit firms including Towers Perrin and Mercer. He has a MBA from London Business School. He has previously been a member of IFoA Council and various industry and DWP working groups. He is also a regular press commentator and speaks at a number of conferences and events on topical pension issues.

Mitesh is an experienced investment banker and corporate finance professional. He recently joined a fast growing technology company and previously was at J.P. Morgan where he spent the majority of his career advising companies on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions globally in the energy and industrial sectors. Mitesh graduated from UCT with honours in actuarial science and finance. 

Nicola Williams is a part-time Crown Court judge and author.  She was listed as one of the 100 most influential Black people in the UK. After a successful career at the bar (including as a legal commentator on the OJ Simpson trial verdict), she served as an ombudsman both in the UK and internationally, including as a commissioner at the Independent Police Complaints Commission and as the Complaints Commissioner of the Cayman Islands. She was the first Service Complaints Ombudsman for the UK Armed Forces.  

Nicola holds a number of board and trustee positions. She is Chair of the Independent Complaints Panel for the Portman Group, co-Chair of the EDI Forum for the Association of Chief Executives, and a trustee of Bridge Support. She is also an active volunteer for Speakers for Schools. She is the author of the legal thriller “Without Prejudice”. Her second thriller will be published by Penguin in March 2023. 

Emma Gilpin is Head of Regulatory Policy at the IFoA and a qualified solicitor with a background specialising in professional regulation, public law, and litigation. Prior to joining the IFoA she spent 8 years in private practice working for a large law firm and was an in-house lawyer to the Scottish Police Authority.