Actuarial, Finance, Risk and Insurance Congress

Dr Mudavanhu is the Group CEO and Executive Director of CBZ Holdings. He has many years of experience in the regional and international financial services markets and he brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in risk management. He is also a non-Executive Director at the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). Dr Mudavanhu received his Doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Washington (USA) and a Masters degree in Financial Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley (USA). Upon completion of his studies, he joined American International Group (AIG) in New York as a Senior Risk Analytics Associate. Following his time at AIG, Blessing joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as Director in Global Risk Management encompassing New York City, London, Mexico City and Sao Paulo.

In 2010 he joined African Banking Corporation (BancABC) as Group Chief Risk Officer and served as Acting Group Chief Executive Officer for 2 years. BancABC had operations in Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and a minority interest in a large Nigerian Bank. He left BancABC in January 2017 to set up Dura Capital LLC in Johannesburg. Dr Mudavanhu was Adjunct Professor of Risk Management in the Financial Mathematics Program at Baruch College of The City University of New York. He currently is a Visiting Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics as well as a Sessional Lecturer at Wits Business School at the University of The Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. 

Corina Constantinescu is Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Institute for Financial and Actuarial Mathematics, in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, at the University of Liverpool, UK. Prior to being an academic, Corina worked as an actuary and led the life insurance department of one of the first private Romanian insurance companies. Since 2013, together with Professor Severine Arnold of HEC Lausanne, they have been organizing the PARTY conferences for young researchers. During 2013-2016 she coordinated the RARE network, within a four-year EU Framework 7 project, connecting 12 international institutions of great repute, to work on the theoretical side of the analysis of ruin probabilities in case of disasters or extreme shocks for insurance-like risk pools, by the introduction and analysis of new risk measures, and by (asymptotic) quantification of aggregated risk. Since 2018, she is regularly teaching and supervising MSc students from the African Institute of Mathematical Science (AIMS) network. In 2020, she was one of the two academics named on the 100 Women to Watch list of the Cranfield University’s School of Management, as ideally suited to board positions on FTSE 350 companies. Given her practical perspective, many of her papers are published in actuarial journals, however she also publishes in applied probability journals. She serves as associate editor in a number of actuarial journals and is part of the publicity team of Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability. Her expertise is in analytical methods for deriving exact or asymptotic results for ruin probabilities, with light or heavy-tailed assumptions in complex insurance risk models. Some of her more recent research interests are around fair insurance pricing when gender is not considered a factor, as well as financial inclusion, specifically fair pricing and regulation of microfinance and microinsurance practices. She spends her sabbatical year, 2022-23, as visiting scholar within the Social Finance Programme of the International Labour Organization - the United Nations agency for the world of work.

Marjorie serves an independent non-executive director in the financial services sector. She is also a trustee of two social justice non-for-profit organisations active in Southern Africa. In 2022, she was appointed as an external member of the Prudential Regulation Committee of the Bank of England. Marjorie is a regular keynote speaker on topics such as ‘Purpose and Meaning: the Keys to Life’ and the Unlimited Power of Your Potential’. Through her work as a leadership and life coach she demonstrates her passion for personal growth. She is also an advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a Past President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and was the first person of colour to hold office in the organisation’s 160 years and also its youngest. Her prior roles include being a member of the Group Executive Committee of Liberty Group in South Africa, playing the role of Chief Strategist and Chief Risk Officer of Old Mutual’s African Operations. Marjorie trained as an actuary and holds a Sloan Master of Leadership and Strategy from the London Business School.

Moshe Arye Milevsky is a tenured professor, published author and consultant based in Toronto, Canada. He has an M.A. (1992) in Mathematical Statistics, a Ph.D. (1996) in financial economics, and he is a (2002) Fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences. Most recently (2022) he earned an MSc from the Department of History, Classics and Archeology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

He is a world recognized expert on the financial history and economic design of “retirement products” that help consumers manage longevity risk towards the end of the human life-cycle. 

Dr. Milevsky has published 17 books (translated into 6 languages) and has authored over seventy peer-reviewed scholarly articles. His book: King William’s Tontine: Why the Retirement Annuity of the Future Should Resemble Its Past (Cambridge University Press) was granted the Kulp-Wright Book Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association. And, his latest book How to Build a Modern Tontine: Scripts, Tips and Algorithms was published in the summer of 2022.

Mary Hardy is a Professor of Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo in Canada.  Her research focuses on actuarial risk management, particularly in the context of equity-linked life insurance, and employer sponsored pension plans. Her current research focuses on social impacts of actuarial stewardship. She has written three books and around 80 papers on a range of topics in actuarial and quantitative risk management.

Dr Hardy earned her PhD at Heriot-Watt University, where her supervisor was Dr Howard Waters.  She is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst.

John W. Robinson, FSA, MAAA, FCA (2022-2023)
President and Chair, Society of Actuaries

Robinson recently retired as an actuary with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, where he was responsible for reviewing the actuarial components of the annual statements of the life insurance companies domiciled in Minnesota, and for providing actuarial support in the reviews of life insurance and annuity product filings. He also represented Minnesota on various committees with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). His prior actuarial roles were in OPEB valuations, life insurance, and pensions.

Robinson previously served as a member of the SOA Board of Directors. He volunteers regularly as an SOA exam grader and with the SOA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Research Advisory Committee. Robinson previously served as president of the International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA). He 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 Florida State University.

Roseanne is Health Policy Actuary at Discovery Health and also adjunct professor in the School of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.  She was President of the Actuarial Society of South Africa in 2016/17 and President of the International Actuarial Association in 2022.  She is currently chairing the IAA Strategic Planning Committee in her role as immediate past president and also serves on the education committee.  Roseanne’s areas of practice have been healthcare and employee benefits as well as education. She also has a keen interest in promoting diversity in the actuarial profession and supporting public interest initiatives.