The IFoA is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Mark Cross as chair of its Research and Thought Leadership Committee (RTLC). This followed a very competitive recruitment process that attracted high-quality candidates from a variety of disciplines around the world.
The RTLC was established earlier this year to support the profession's objective of advancing all matters relevant to actuarial science. Its key focus is to ensure that gaps in the IFoA's research are addressed and that this research is of a high quality and widely disseminated.
Cross is currently research professor of computational modelling at Swansea University's School of Engineering. His experience of ensuring delivery of multidisciplinary research, as well as successfully bringing together academia and industry in research initiatives, will bring great benefits to the IFoA's own research agenda.
Immediate past president David Hare, who has been acting as interim chair of the RTLC, said: "We are delighted to have appointed someone of Mark Cross's calibre to this exciting and important role within the IFoA.
He will be able to bring an external perspective at a time when actuarial research must remain relevant to ensure the long-term sustainability of the profession."
Commenting on his appointment, Cross said: "It is a privilege to work with the IFoA community, and I look forward to bringing to the committee my distinctive strategic and practical experience in industry/profession-focused research from outside the actuarial world. My prime objective here is simple: to help the IFoA community formulate a coherent set of processes, themes and programmes to identify and deliver on the key research challenges now and into the future."
