Longevity 21 Plenary Speakers

Douglas Anderson is the founder of Club Vita (www.clubvita.net) which specialises in applying modern data science techniques to innovate in longevity and mortality risk management.  Club Vita is currently embarking on an exciting new chapter, collecting longevity data in the United States, its third country.  The smarter collection and structuring of data enables more cost-effective ways both to reduce the risks of financing in later life and to help our societies face up to the challenges of ageing populations. He passionately believes that an international longevity “currency” would increase the security of pension promises.

Douglas has thirty years’ experience in practicing as a consulting actuary, across a diverse spectrum of engagements.  He is a fellow of the UK’s Institute of Actuaries, and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary.  Douglas lives in Edinburgh, with his wife and two teenage children.  To stay fit, Douglas enjoys cycling and skiing, and has recently taken up running to suit his nomadic lifestyle.

Patrick Cheung is a Senior Vice President and Head of Longevity Product at RGA.  He is based in London.  He leads a broad range of initiatives around longevity products, risks, assumptions, data and modelling. Patrick has been with the company since 2012.   Prior to RGA, Patrick worked in the pension consultancy industry and for insurance companies in the annuity area.

Patrick holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Applied Finance and a MSc in Financial Engineering.  He is a Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries.

Guy Coughlan has over three decades of experience in pensions, investments and risk management. He is currently Chief Operating Officer at Clota Varde, a corporate finance boutique focused on impact investment. He is also a member of the Advisory Board at Longitude Solutions and a non-executive director of J.P. Morgan Pension Trustees.

Guy’s career spans investment and risk advisory, pension advisory and pension management. He spent 17 years at J.P. Morgan where he was a Managing Director holding different global, US and European roles, finishing as co-head of European Pension Advisory.

Guy was then Chief Risk and Analytics Officer at Pacific Global Advisors, a US pension investment advisor and fiduciary manager.  Most recently he spent nearly eight years at the University Superannuation Scheme (USS), a UK pension plan with £90bn of assets as at 31 March 2022. At USS he held the positions of Chief Risk Officer, Valuation Programme Executive and Senior Strategic Advisor, serving on the executive committees of both USS and its investment management subsidiary.

Guy has a D.Phil (i.e., PhD) from Oxford University, an MBA from Henley Business School (UK) and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Western Australia.

Sheila Harney is Head of Risk Solutions for Canada Life Reinsurance in Europe. Over the past ten years, she has led a wide variety of transactions including successfully executing a range of large longevity swaps, ongoing flow treaties and a variety of asset reinsurance solutions. Prior to this, Sheila was a Director in Pacific Life Re’s longevity pricing team and a Product and Valuation Actuary at CNP Europe Life. She started her career as a consultant with Willis Towers Watson, qualifying as an actuary in 2010.

Richard D MacMinn , BA, MA, Ph.D., is a senior research fellow at The University of Texas and the National Chengchi University. He held the Edmondson-Miller Chair in Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University from 2002 to 2015. He held the Swiss Re Chair in the Management of Risk at the University of Nottingham from 2000 to 2002. From 1998 through 2006, he was editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the lead journal globally on insurance and risk management, published by the American Risk and Insurance Association. In addition, he was an associate editor for the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, and the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. Professor MacMinn served as a board member of the Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association from 2000-2003, as a board member for the American Risk and Insurance Association from 2003-2006, and is or was a member of the American Risk and Insurance Association, Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association, European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists, Southern Risk and Insurance Association, Western Risk and Insurance Association, American Economic Association and American Finance Association. He has published in journals including the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Geneva Papers, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Journal of Finance. He won the Mehr Award several times and other awards from the American Risk and Insurance Association, Casualty Actuarial Society, General Insurance Research Organization, and the Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association for his research.

Stuart McDonald is Head of Longevity and Demographic Insights and a Partner at LCP. He helps clients understand and manage the impact of mortality trends, leveraging insights from LCP’s Health Analytics practice. He advises some of the UK's largest pension schemes as well as leading insurers and reinsurers across Europe. He is Chair of the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI) and founded and co-Chaired the influential COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group. He was awarded an MBE for services to Public Health in the 2022 New Year Honours.

Rohit Mathur leads Prudential’s International Reinsurance business, where he is responsible for the longevity risk transfer (LRT) and funded reinsurance businesses in the UK and Europe. Prudential's reinsurance activities have led the firm to being named “Reinsurer of the Year” for four consecutive years. The team has closed over $110 billion in longevity reinsurance transactions since 2011, covering members of nearly 200 pensionRohit Mathur funds in the United Kingdom including British Airways, HSBC, Marks and Spencer, and Rolls-Royce.

Prior to this role, Rohit was head of Global Product and Market Solutions, where he was charged with assessing the corporate finance implications of pension risk management to cultivate a consistent recognition of pension de-risking solutions. Partnering with Prudential's distribution team in the service of its clients, Rohit focused on promoting an understanding of pension risk issues among credit and equity analysts, treasurers, chief financial officers and investment bankers. Rohit has been involved in structuring and executing several large and innovative transactions in the United States, including the agreements with Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Philips and J.C. Penney to transfer pension liabilities.

Before joining Prudential, Rohit was an executive director and led the Capital Structure and Strategy advisory team for UBS Investment Bank. There, he advised clients in multiple industries, focusing specifically on corporate finance, risk advisory and pension issues. Prior to that, Rohit was with Moody's Investors Service, where he published research on accounting and pension issues and worked with credit analysts to incorporate those risks more systematically into company ratings. He also co-authored Moody's methodologies on assessing risk of multi-employer pensions and other post-retirement healthcare obligations.

Prudential Financial Inc. (PFI) and its affiliated companies are not affiliated in any manner with Prudential plc (United Kingdom) or with Prudential Assurance Company, a subsidiary of M&G plc, incorporated in the United Kingdom.

Roshan Tajapra is the Head of Longevity Research at SCOR. Based in London, Roshan leads the team responsible for the assumptions underlying SCOR’s global longevity products. Drawing on deep expertise in population health, mortality modelling, and long‑term trend assessment, Roshan plays a central role in shaping SCOR’s evidence‑based view of demographic risk.

Roshan is also a member of the CMI Mortality Projections Committee at the IFoA, who are responsible for producing the mortality improvements model for the UK industry. A frequent contributor to industry discussions on longevity, Roshan brings clarity to complex demographic topics and is known for translating analytical insights into practical guidance for industry stakeholders.

Roshan joined SCOR in 2018. Prior to SCOR, he held positions at Prudential, Canada Life, and Legal & General. He has a background in mathematics and theoretical physics. Outside of work, Roshan is a keen cyclist.

Jennifer Wang is a Distinguished Professr at National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taiwan. She earned her Ph.D. in Risk Management and Insurance from Temple University in the United States. In academia, Professor Wang currently serves as the Chairman of the FinTech Research Center and the Amundi Investment Innovation Research Center.

In the financial industry, she is the current Chairperson of Taiwan Sustainable Finance and Enterprise Impact Association and serves on the boards of directors of Cathay Financial Holdings, Cathay Life Insurance, and Cathay United Bank. She has also served as a member of advisory committees for many major government pension funds in Taiwan.

Professor Wang previously was appointed as Chairperson of the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), the highest financial regulatory authority in Taiwan. She also held the positions of President of the Taiwan Insurance Guaranty Fund and the Taiwan Risk and Insurance Association (TRIA). For many years, Professor Wang has devoted herself to research and policy initiatives in areas including pension and longevity risk, FinTech, ESG. Throughout her distinguished career, she has made significant contributions to the development of Taiwan’s financial industry and public policy through her extensive expertise in risk management and pension markets.

Nay Wynn is a Senior Research Actuary in SCOR’s Longevity Research team, based in London. He has nearly two decades of experience across longevity and protection, specialising in biometric assumption development, experience analysis, and methodological innovation.

Nay has a proven track record of leading multi‑country research initiatives, influencing senior stakeholders, and scaling actuarial capability across teams. He is a recognised contributor to the actuarial profession through conference presentations and industry publications.

Outside of work, Nay enjoys entertaining his children with improvised, and often ridiculous, made‑up stories.