Hosts
Johnny Li
Johnny Li is Professor of Actuarial Science and the Holder of the Munich Re Chair in Predictive Analytics at the University of Waterloo. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Actuarial Science and is a Fellow of the Society of
Actuaries (FSA). He is an Editor of the Annals of Actuarial Science (2021-present) and Co-Editor of the North American Actuarial Journal (2012-present), and was an Associate Director of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFOA) Actuarial Research Centre (2018-20) and a member of the board of directors of the Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association (2011-15).
Professor Li has contributed various effective methods to price, hedge, and measure longevity risk. These contributions have led to several prestigious awards, including the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Redington Prize, the SOA Edward A. Lew Award, the SCOR Actuarial Award in Asia, the Annual Prize for the best paper published in the North American Actuarial Journal in 2011, and the Harold D. Skipper Award for the best paper presented at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association Meeting.
Professor Li collaborates frequently with industry partners. In 2016-17, he collaborated with the IFOA and Life and Longevity Markets Association to produce a readily-applicable methodology for quantifying the basis risk arising from the use of population-based mortality indexes for managing longevity risk. In 2016-18, he worked in partnership with the SOA in a research study that aims to identify the key drivers of mortality dynamics in the United States. Currently, Professor Li is working collaboratively with the Canadian Institute of Actuaries to develop consistent guidance for mortality improvement assumptions that will be adopted by insurers and pension plan sponsors in Canada.
David Blake
Professor David Blake is Director of the Pensions Institute at, City University of London, and chairman of Square Mile Consultants, a training and research consultancy. He is also: co-designer of the PensionMetrics life-cycle financial planning software; co-author of
the A2Risk attitude to risk questionnaire; co-inventor of the Cairns-Blake-Dowd stochastic mortality model; and co-founder with JPMorgan of the LifeMetrics Indices. In 2014, he was appointed Chair of the Independent Review of Retirement Income. Its
report We Need a National Narrative: Building a Consensus around Retirement Income was published in March 2016 (pensions-institute.org/IRRIReport.pdf). He won the 2016 Robert I. Mehr Award for ‘A Two-Factor Model for Stochastic Mortality with Parameter Uncertainty: Theory and Calibration’ (with Andrew J. G. Cairns and Kevin Dowd) published in the December 2006 issue of the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the journal of the American Risk and Insurance Association. This Award is presented each year for the paper published in the JRI ten years before that has best stood the test of time. He has a PhD from LSE.