Professor David Blake
David Blake is Director of the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School, and the chairman of Square Mile Consultants, a training and research consultancy. He is also: co-founder of the International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conferences; co-inventor of the Cairns-Blake-Dowd stochastic mortality model; and co-founder with JPMorgan of the LifeMetrics Indices. In 2011, he won the Robert I. Mehr award from the American Risk and Insurance Association for his seminar paper on mortality risk transfers. The paper is credited with helping to develop a new global capital market in mortality risk transfers between pension funds, life assurers and capital market investors, leading to the world's first pension buy-out in 2006 and the world's first pension buy-in and first longevity swap in 2007.
Professor Stéphane Loisel
Stéphane Loisel holds a PhD in applied mathematics from University of Lyon, a MSc in actuarial science and finance, and is a fellow and former member of the board of the Institut des Actuaires. He is now full professor at ISFA, Université Lyon 1. He was visiting professor at ORIE, Cornell University in 2014 and has been lecturing for several years in Université Paris 6 and ENSAE.
Associate Editor of IME, MCAP, BFA, Risks and co-editor of EAJ, Stéphane's main research interests include ruin theory with dependent risks, Solvency II, regulation and ERM, as well as longevity risk and customer behaviour in insurance. Stéphane is the coordinator of the ANR 4-year research project LoLitA (Longevity with Lifestyle Adjustments) and of the research chair Actuariat Durable sponsored by Milliman Paris. He received the SCOR PhD award in 2005, the Lloyd's Science of Risk runner-up prize (insurance and financial markets category) in 2011 and the Hachemeister prize in 2013. Stéphane also serves on the CERA review panel and is the scientific director of the French CERA program. He is a board member and member of the audit committee of April Group.
Professor Nicole El Karoui
Nicole El Karoui is currently emeritus professor of Applied Mathematics at the Laboratoire de Probabilités et Modèles Aléatoires of Pierre and Marie Curie University and previously professor at the École Polytechnique and Université du Maine (France). Her research has contributed to the application of probability and stochastic differential equations to modeling and risk management in financial markets. Nicole's research is focused on probability theory, stochastic control theory and mathematical finance and more recently on population dynamics and longevity risk. Her contributions focused on the mathematical theory of stochastic control, backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) and their application in mathematical finance. In mathematical finance, she is known for her work on the robustness of the Black-Scholes hedging strategy, superhedging of contingent claims and the change of numéraire method for option pricing. Nicole is the coordinator of ANR Project LoLitA (Longevity with Lifestyle Adjustments) in Pierre and Marie Curie University.
Professor Richard MacMinn
Professor Richard D. MacMinn, BA, MA, PhD, is the first holder of the Edmondson-Miller Chair in Insurance and Financial Services at Illinois State University and was previously the first holder of the Swiss Re Chair in the Management of Risk at the University of Nottingham. He was editor of the Journal of Risk and insurance, the lead journal in the world on insurance and risk management, published by the American Risk and Insurance Association from 1998 through 2006. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Asia-Pacific Journal of Risk and Insurance, the Journal of Insurance Issues and the Quarterly Journal 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 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 has thrice won the prestigious Mehr Award in addition to a number of other awards from the American Risk and Insurance Association, Casualty Actuarial Society, and General Insurance Research Organization in the United Kingdom and Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association for his publications.