Tutor Biographies

David Espstein, Executive Director, JP MORGAN

David Epstein is an Executive Director in the Pension ALM Advisory team at JPMorgan, responsible for strategic risk management and asset-liability management for corporates and financial institutions. Most recently, he has focused on longevity and mortality modelling and risk management, working on the launch and roll-out of LifeMetrics. David holds a DPhil in applied mathematics from Oxford University and is a visiting research fellow in the Oxford Centre for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He has published a wide range of articles in academic and industry journals and has contributed to books by Risk, Euromoney and Wiley.

Soren Fiig Jarner, Chief Analyst, Actuarial Department, ATP-DANISH LABOUR MARKET SUPPLEMENTARY PENSION FUND

Soren Fiig Jarner is Chief Analyst in the Quantitative Research Unit at The Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension Fund (ATP). The unit is responsible for the design of ALM-policies and has been involved in the development of risk measures, strategic investment policy, bonus policy, pension products and mortality models. ATP has received numerous international awards based on this work, including the Risk Award 2006 for best pension fund and the IPE Award 2005 for best European pension fund. Soren Fiig Jarner holds an M.Sc. degree in Statistics from University of Copenhagen (1998) and a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from Lancaster University (2002).

Jochen Russ, Managing Partner, IFA ULM

Jochen Russ is managing partner of the Institute for Finance and Actuarial Science, an actuarial consulting firm located in Ulm, Germany. The focus of his consulting work is on the development of innovative life insurance products and asset liability management. He holds a PhD from Ulm University and is a lecturer at the department of actuarial science of Ulm University. He is a member of the German Society of Financial and Actuarial Mathematics, the American Risk and Insurance Association and the Asia Pacific Risk and Insurance Association. He is author of more than 50 insurance related papers and received 7 research awards.

Daniel Ryan, Senior Consultant, WATSON WYATT LIMITED

Daniel Ryan is a senior consultant in Watson Wyatt’s Insurance & Financial Services practice, and previously studied medical sciences at Cambridge University. Daniel has led a multi-disciplinary research group for major UK insurers and insurers over the last five years, investigating such areas as trends in mortality and morbidity experience and innovative mortality modelling techniques. Daniel has published a number of research papers on modelling mortality in different countries, including “Disease and Death– improving our understanding of the future” to the Staple Inn Actuarial Society in July 2007.

Chris Watts, Vice President, JP Morgan

Chris Watts is a member of the Pensions ALM Advisory team focusing on the development of longevity risk management products for pension schemes and insurance companies. He previously headed up JP Morgan's cross product derivatives structuring and solutions team for UK pension schemes. He also spent the majority of 2006 on secondment with the start up insurance firm Synesis Life. Before joining JPM in 2005 he worked as a pensions consulting actuary with Barnett Waddingham where he qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 2002. Chris read Mathematics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Emma McWilliam, Senior Consultant, Milliman

Emma McWilliam FIA, FSA, MAAA is a senior consulting actuary in Milliman’s London office. She has significant experience in the area of annuities and longevity risk having advised market participants on setting longevity pricing bases and longevity risk terms of trade. She has also reviewed mortality pricing bases for annuity longevity swap transactions, undertaken strategic assignments to identify life insurance securitisation opportunities and worked with investment banks on the development of longevity bond and swap structures.

She is a regular presenter at industry conferences around longevity risk and capital markets, and has co-authored a number of papers on the subject.

Philip Simpson, Principal, Milliman

Philip Simpson FIA, ASA, FSAI is a Principal of Milliman in London. He has managed or worked on a wide range of longevity projects, including advising sellers of blocks on annuities on price and structure; advising new entrants to the longevity market on pricing, and advising reinsurers on pricing bases and terms of trade.

He is the principal author on a number of independent reports on the reinsurance and transfer of large annuity books; working with a large investment bank on the development of a UK longevity index; and working with a large international investment bank on analysing international longevity trends and correlations.