Session: 65

IACA

Session: 72

ASTIN

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Session: 86

Professionalism

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Session: 98

Plenary

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Summary

Wider Fields

Chairman: TBD

Panelists: 
·Jean Berthon(France)
·Tony Coleman (Australia)
·Yves Guérard(Canada)
·Paul Thornton (U.K.)
·Stuart Wason (Canada) 

One of the greatest challenges for the profession in the 21st century is, undoubtedly, diversification. A session will be organized on Wider Fields. The topic to be discussed during this session is: in what other areas of economy or business (aside from the traditional ones) may we further the role of actuaries.

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Paul Thornton is the immediate Past President of the Institute of Actuaries, having been President from 1998 to 2000.

He is the Chairman of the Committee of the International Actuarial Association dealing with the International Accounting Standard on Employee Benefits (IAS19) and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Actuarial Association. He is also the Chairman of the Pensions Committee of the Groupe Consultatif of European Actuaries.

Paul was Chairman of the Pensions Board of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries from 1994 to 1996 and Chairman of the Association of Consulting Actuaries from June 1997 until June 1998.

Paul is Senior Partner of Watson Wyatt Partners, the European arm of Watson Wyatt Worldwide. He holds an honours degree in Mathematics from Oxford University and joined Watson Wyatt Partners (formerly R Watson & Sons) in 1974, qualifying as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1975. He has been a Partner of the firm since 1977. He is Chairman of Watson Wyatt Partners' Partnership Board.

Paul has been involved for many years in providing advice on employee benefit issues to a variety of companies operating in various economic sectors and he has written professional papers on Pension Scheme Design, Bulk Transfer of Pensions and Realistic Funding Assumptions.

December 2001

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