The QAS Committee is responsible for the IFoA’s Quality Assurance Scheme accreditations.
The committee acts on behalf of the IFoA’s Regulatory Board to determine applications for QAS accreditation and to monitor those accreditations once awarded. Its full responsibilities are set out in the QAS Committee’s terms of reference. Minutes of the meetings are published on a quarterly basis.
QAS Committee members include lay people and a balanced representation of volunteer members from the different industries and countries where the QAS operates. The committee meets quarterly and has a lay chair.
The committee members are (see their biographies below):
The executive is comprised of:
Find out more about each member of the committee below.
Georgie Barnard has a background in law enforcement, having established and led the UK’s first National Business Crime Centre. This initiative was designed to support law enforcement agencies and national businesses in combating cyber and organised crime.
Until recently, Georgie served as the Chief Executive of the West End Security Group, an organisation dedicated to assisting its members in managing major incidents in central London.
A strong advocate for maintaining high professional standards, Georgie is the Chair of the Professional Conduct Committee for the Chartered Association of Building Engineers. She also serves on the Preliminary Investigation Committee for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and acts as a lay advisor to the Shared Anti-Fraud Service for Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Councils.
As a committed mentor, Georgie supports individuals of all ages in their personal development and collaborates with Bookmark, a charity focused on helping children learn to read.
After years of working unsociable hours while balancing the demands of three daughters, numerous pets, and a husband, Georgie cherishes quality family time whenever possible. In her rare moments of leisure, she enjoys running, gardening, and cooking.
Helen has a non-executive portfolio which builds on her 29-year career as a senior executive in the insurance industry at AIG and Accenture, with international operating experience and deep expertise in strategy, transformation, and governance.
She is a collaborative problem solver with an academic background in philosophy. Her interests include the intersection of insurance with geopolitics, the effect of change on people with special reference to cultural differences and organisational values, and the social, economic, and ethical impact of data.
She has been a Non-Executive Director of the Lloyd’s Managing Agent RenaissanceRe since April 2021, and Chair of the Audit Committee since April 2023. She joined the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries as a lay member on the QAS Committee in 2019 and the Regulatory Board in 2020.
Alison Carr has a wealth of experience working with professional bodies and in regulation, most recently as a director of a large engineering institution (The Institution of Engineering and Technology) and prior to that as the chief executive of a regulatory body (the Architects Registration Board).
In spanning both regulatory and professional bodies, Alison has been able to promote the value of using professionals and has led and supported campaigns to improve diversity in the professions.
Alison has delivered significant changes in governance and improvements in both compliance and transparency which improve public confidence in professional and charitable bodies and their professional members.
Alongside executive roles, she was a pension fund trustee for 4 years and has held non-executive appointments, contributing to the strategic direction of organisations, supporting practice standards and the development of professionals.
John Herbert has over 35 years’ experience in the pensions industry, advising trustee and corporate clients around funding and risk management. He established the Actuarial Practice at Premier Pensions Management in 2007 and was Chief Actuary until its acquisition by Isio in 2022.
He led the Premier application for QAS accreditation in 2016 and was the lead senior quality assurance representative for Premier, developing and implementing the quality assurance programme. He also supported Isio in obtaining QAS accreditation following the acquisition of Premier.
Prior to joining Premier, John has worked in a number of areas helping firms comply with changing legislative requirement and completing remedial work.
Kathryn Wilson has over 10 years’ experience in pensions consultancy. She joined Hymans Robertson in 2013 and her current Pensions Research Consultant role is focussed on the professionalism and quality assurance aspects of actuarial work. She is a member of the firm’s professional, technical, and risk management groups. She is involved in helping lead and deliver firmwide projects such as the rollout of Technical Actuarial Standard 100 Version 2.0.
Prior to her current role, Kathryn supported Local Government Pension Scheme funds on a variety of pension matters, including funding, accounting, and bulk transfers.
Kathryn has been a Senior Quality Assurance Representative for Hymans Robertson since March 2022 and she joined the QAS Committee in September 2023. She is her firm’s Quality Assurance Scheme Delivery Lead and CPD coordinator.