Mon 23 May 2022 - Opportunity to participate in a virtual Roundtable Discussion hosted by the IFoA in conjunction with the City of London Corporation’s Socio-economic Diversity Taskforce
In order to boost productivity and levelling up opportunities, HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have commissioned the City of London Corporation to lead an independent taskforce. This taskforce is intended to improve socio-economic diversity at senior levels in UK financial and professional services. The taskforce has a vision of ‘equity of progression’ – where high performance is valued over ‘fit’ and ‘polish’.
Matt Saker, IFoA President-elect will chair the Roundtable Discussion, which will be co-hosted by Kay Forsythe, partner at Deloitte and responsible for leading the Industry Consultation workstream for this initiative. A number of themes will be discussed to better understand how Government, regulators and sector bodies can incentivise employer action in increasing socio-economic diversity at senior levels in the sector. You can book a place at this virtual session on 23 May 2022, from 14.30 to 16.00 to share your ideas on how to best advance socio-economic diversity across the sector and the actuarial profession. Attendees are limited to only a few places. Subject to demand, however, we may organise an additional session at a future date.
Social mobility is an important issue for all of us, for the actuarial profession and for the UK and global economy. Research from the Bridge Group shows that employees from non-professional backgrounds in the UK progress 25% slower than peers, with no link to job performance. These employees report they are exhausted by efforts to conform to dominant cultures, which in turn impacts individual productivity. To drive forward successful businesses, it is crucial that people from all backgrounds can perform to their potential and have their abilities recognised.
Matt has 30 years of experience working as an actuary in the life and general insurance industry. After a long career at Watson Wyatt, Matt joined Aviva in 2009 where he held the role of Group Chief Actuary until January 2022.
Matt’s responsibilities in this role covered all aspects of the Group’s actuarial methodology in respect of both Life and General Insurance. In addition, Matt led the development of data science and the embedding of climate risk within Aviva’s Risk management Framework. Matt plays an active role in the UK actuarial profession and was elected to the Council of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) in 2016, before joining the Regulation Board in 2018.
More recently Matt has been closely involved in the profession’s response to climate change, the development of the IFoA’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategy.
Partner at Deloitte and responsible for leading the Industry Consultation workstream for this initiative