8 April 2024
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) has appointed Lord Currie of Marylebone as the inaugural chair of its new IFoA Board. The appointment is made with immediate effect for an initial three year period.
As chair, Lord Currie will now lead the process for selecting the open positions on the IFoA Board including two independent non-executive directors (iNEDs) and four member non-executive directors (mNEDs). Once all of the positions are filled, the IFoA Board will consist of five mNEDS (of which one is the president), three iNEDs (of which one is the chair) and the CEO. It is planned that the new IFoA Board will be complete with all non-executive directors ratified before the organisation’s AGM on 24 July.
Lord Currie has over two decades of non-executive and chair experience. He is a cross bench member of the House of Lords and is currently chair of the Advertising Standards Authority and a council member of the European Policy Forum. Lord Currie was previously founding chair of Ofcom (2002-2009) and founding chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (2012-2018) as well as serving as chair at the University of Essex (2011-2018) and the Alacrity Foundation (2010-2013). Lord Currie has also held non-executive board positions at Royal Mail Group plc (2009-2012), and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (2004-2019). He was also Professor and Dean at Cass (now Bayes) Business School (2001-2008).
IFoA President Kalpana Shah, said: “The appointment of Lord Currie as chair of the new IFoA Board is a significant milestone in our new governance reforms, which are designed to modernise the IFoA and ensure that it continues to serve both the needs of its members and the wider public interest. Not only does Lord Currie bring with him extensive non-executive experience, but he has been a founding chair at both Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority so he is ideally placed to establish our new board and build the foundations for its future success.”
Lord Currie, new chair of the IFoA Board, said: “I am honoured to have been appointed chair of the IFoA Board and I am looking forward to establishing a board that combines the best of talent from within the actuarial profession with high calibre independent directors that will provide valuable skills and alternative viewpoints to the organisation. In an increasingly uncertain world, the unique skillset of actuaries has never been needed more and I am determined to build the board that the IFoA and the wider profession deserve for their future sustainable success.”