Our Council

Elected by voting members, the 7-person Council is the NZSA’s governing body.

As outlined in the NZSA Rules, the Council is primarily responsible for:

Leadership – Setting and implementing the NZSA’s vision, policy direction and strategic objectives.

GovernanceEnsuring good governance of the NZSA so that it is well managed, has effective risk management, complies with legislation and meets high standards of probity and transparency.

Stewardship – Protecting the reputation of the NZSA and the actuarial profession by maintaining and enforcing strict professional and ethical standards.

 

Meet our current Council members:

President
Scott Lewis

Scott has more than 30 years of experience in the life and general insurance industries, the public sector and more recently in governance roles.

He has worked in New Zealand, UK, USA and Latin America in a variety of roles including pricing, valuation, financial reporting, risk, capital, reinsurance and earthquake claims. He has also managed the start-up of an insurance business in New Zealand. In the public sector he worked on modelling Children’s wellbeing for Oranga Tamariki. Scott currently runs a consultancy and sits on the Board of Toka Tu Ake EQC.

He has been on Council since 2018, was secretary in 2019 and Vice President in 2020-2021. He has previously served on the Enterprise Risk Committee (2016-18) and the 2006 Conference Committee.

Scott is a Fellow of the NZ Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Actuaries and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors.

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Vice President
Lee-Ann du Toit

Lee-Ann is a Deloitte Partner, the National Lead for Actuarial as well as the Insurance Sector lead for Deloitte New Zealand. She became a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (London) in 2002 and is currently a Fellow of both the Actuarial Society of South Africa and NZSA.

She has more than twenty five years of diversified experience in the financial services industry mainly in South Africa and New Zealand. Lee-Ann has served on numerous Executive Committees and Boards, recognized for innovation, leading change and customer-centric initiatives, starting new businesses and is a Harvard Business School Alumni.

She has been on Council since 2020 and has previously served on the Professional Development Committee of NZSA from 2019 to 2022. Lee-Ann actively leads the delivery of the NZSA Communication strategy including LinkedIn, the website and other channels

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Member
Alison O’Connell

Alison began her career in the financial services industry 30 years ago working at a life reinsurer in the United Kingdom.

After spells in actuarial and management consulting, Alison became the founding Director of the Pensions Policy Institute.  Since making Christchurch her home in 2006, Alison has continued her retirement income research, advising government agencies on policy aspects of pensions, retirement, and longevity. She is a member of the Retirement Income Interest Group of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries.

Alison has also developed a governance career and is a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.  She is currently a Non-Executive Director of a life insurer, a pension fund, and a not-for-profit foundation.

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Member
Nathan Thomas

Nathan has over 20 years’ global experience in the financial services industry and is a qualified fellow of the UK and NZ actuarial professional bodies. Nathan holds a number of different actuarial consulting and governance roles through his company Actuary & Governance Ltd and he has completed an Executive MBA, BSc (Hons) and BCA at Victoria University of Wellington.

Nathan enjoys spending time with his family, exercising and volunteering in the community.

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Treasurer
Cordelia Shamy

Cordelia started her career at PwC in 2007 as an actuarial analyst working on a wide range of assignments for insurance and Government clients.

In 2015, Cordelia joined Cigna as Valuation Manager before moving to the Pricing team in 2018. She is currently seconded to the IFRS17 team, working closely with other experts to design and implement the solutions required to begin reporting under the new standard.

Cordelia was previously on the NZSA’s Member Engagement Committee for several years before joining Council. She is also a member of the Actuarial Sciences Advisory Board at the Victoria University of Wellington, working with others to bridge the gap between tertiary actuarial education and the industry.

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Secretary
Greg Bird

Greg is currently a Partner with EY and lead’s EY’s Insurance and Actuarial practice in New Zealand. He has deep experience in the insurance industry having worked in corporate and consulting roles for over 20 years in New Zealand, Australia, India and the UK.

Greg has held Appointed Actuary, Chief Actuary, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer roles, and has held a wide range of executive insurance positions including senior roles in strategy, risk management, product and pricing areas.

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Member
Kelvin Prisk

Kelvin started his actuarial career in the Government Actuary’s office in 1966.  He qualified as an FIA in 1973 and has also been an FIAA since 1982 as well as FNZSA.

He was Government Actuary during the early 1980s and was heavily involved in the initial development of the superannuation regulatory environment in NZ. Following that role, he became the inaugural General Manager of a bank owned life insurer in NZ. Since 1990, Kelvin has generally worked outside of NZ including positions in Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea and Indonesia.

In recent years, Kelvin has been undertaking consulting assignments advising regulators in international developing markets often in conjunction with the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank.  He has on ongoing consultancy at the Bank of Papua New Guinea.

Kelvin has been a member of Council on a number of occasions and was President in 1981-82.  He has served on a number of committees both in NZ and Australia and is currently a member of RIIG.

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