Voting members of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) are called upon to vote on the election of the following individuals as Honorary Fellows. These nominees are held by Council to have given service to the actuarial profession, directly or through achievements in related fields.
Voting is conducted independently by UK Engage and members will receive a unique voting link directly from UK Engage shortly. If you do not receive an email, contact the IFoA’s Corporate Secretary, James Harrigan.
The ballot, once opened, will be open 24 hours a day for 28 days. The results will be published thereafter on the IFoA website two working days after the ballot has closed.
This year, four individuals have been endorsed by Council:
Chris Curry, Director of the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) and Principal of the Pensions Dashboard Programme at the Money and Pensions Service (MAPS)
Chris Curry has been nominated for Honorary Fellowship of the IFoA in recognition of his contribution to the development and advancement of UK pensions policy.
Chris Curry is the Director of the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) with overall responsibility for leading and managing the PPI. Chris originally joined the PPI as Research Director in July 2002 and was responsible for the research programme for eleven years.
At the PPI Chris has authored and presented a number of research reports analysing pensions (including state, private and public sector pensions), pension reforms and other provision for retirement income. In June 2019 Chris was also appointed Principal of the Pensions Dashboard Programme at the Money and Pensions Service.
Maggie Craig, Head of the Scotland Office at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Maggie Craig has been nominated for Honorary Fellowship of the IFoA in recognition of her services to UK pensions and regulatory policy.
Maggie Craig is Head of the FCA’s Scotland office. This role, created in September 2017, focuses on maximising FCA presence in Scotland and actively engaging with the Scottish Financial Services community in its broadest sense. Prior to this role Maggie was Head of Insurance and Pension Policy, in Strategy and Competition at the FCA and led FCA Policy work on the substantial pensions change agenda over the last few years including pension freedoms, the exit charge cap and Lifetime ISA.
She also led on the Insurance Distribution Directive, General Insurance renewals and other general insurance initiatives. Maggie graduated from Glasgow University with a degree in English Language and Literature. She has spent much of her career in the industry working in a variety of marketing, technical, press & lobbying roles for companies including Standard Life and Aegon.
Maggie joined the Association of British Insurers in 2007 as Director of Life and Savings, was Acting Director General and later became Director of Financial Conduct Regulation.
Russell Picot, Chair of the Trustee board of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Fund and a Director of LifeSight, Willis Towers Watson’s UK DC Master Trust Board where he chairs the Audit and Risk Committee
Russell Picot has been nominated for Honorary Fellowship of the IFoA in recognition of his services to sustainability and his work on climate-related financial disclosures.
Russell was appointed Chair of the Trustee Board of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Fund in 2017. In September 2021, he was also appointed Deputy Chair and Chair of the Investment Committee of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the UK’s largest private sector pensions scheme. He retired as Group Chief Accounting Officer at HSBC in 2016, having joined HSBC in 1993, reporting directly to the Group CFO. He was appointed a Group General Manager in 2003.
Russell was a Co-chair of the FSB’s Enhanced Disclosure Task Force and is a Special Advisor to the Financial Stability Board’s Climate-related Financial Disclosures Task Force, chaired by Michael Bloomberg. He is a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership and an Honorary Professor in Durham University Business School. He chairs The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change Investor Practices Programme. He is also a trustee of Accounting for Sustainability. Russell holds an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge and is a chartered accountant.
Jennie Hansen, Professor at Heriot-Watt University
Professor Jennie Hansen has been nominated for Honorary Fellowship of the IFoA in recognition of her dedication to the development of the next generation of actuaries.
Jenny was an undergraduate at Carleton College (Minneosta), where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Distinction in Mathematics. She then studied at Warwick University as a Marshall Scholar, completing a M.Sc. in Pure Mathematics. Jennie returned to the US and completed a PhD in probability theory at the University of Minnesota under Bert Fristedt’s supervision.
Since completing her PhD, Jennie has worked at Tufts University, Northeastern University, and the department of Actuarial Maths & Statistics of Heriot-Watt. Her principal research area is probability theory and its applications in combinatorics and computer science. In particular, random combinatorial structures, random combinatorial optimisation problems, and the probabilistic analysis of algorithms.
You can read more about the criteria for Honorary Fellowship, the voting process, and how you can make your own nominations, on the IFoA website.