COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group
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New Year, new website

Avatar photoMatthew EdwardsAvatar photoNicola OliverAvatar photoStuart McDonald
2021-01-04
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2 min read

We enter 2021 with mixed emotions, with vaccines beginning to be rolled out around the world, but with cases and deaths rising in many countries. In the UK cases are soaring, driven by new and more transmissible variants of the virus, with death numbers following. We are in a race against time to vaccinate the population, particularly the most vulnerable groups.

The COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group (C19 ARG) have made the most of the quieter Christmas period to redesign our website to hopefully make it easier to navigate and locate our past work. This has also allowed us to add various media presentations and videos by our members. Any feedback or suggestions are most welcome.

The C19 ARG in 2020 have been Adrian Baskir, Matthew Edwards, Matt Fletcher, Andrew Gache, Stephen Kramer, Joseph Lu, Stuart McDonald, Nicola Oliver, Adrian Pinington, John Roberts, Josephine Robertson, Louis Rossouw, Dan Ryan, Tan Suee Chieh and Gordon Woo. We are indebted to the whole team for this remarkable collaboration, which resulted in 91 bulletins in 2020 along with international media coverage in print and on radio.

We would like to express our sincere thanks all those who worked with us on bulletins in 2020, including Chris Daykin, Beate Degan, Yifei Gong, Dermot Grenham, Zoe Harcombe, Mohammad Khan, Dylan Liew, Richard Marshall, Gary McInally, James Sharpe and Peter Tompkins. Thanks also to Conrad Edwards for many colourful but often sombre graphs. Thank you!

Here’s to a better 2021!

Matthew, Nicola and Stuart

People in facemasks holding candles which display "2021"
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Matthew Edwards

Actuary & Director - Willis Towers Watson

Matthew Edwards is an actuary working at Willis Towers Watson, where he leads the life insurance practice’s demographic risk work, focusing on mortality, longevity and associated analytics.

He has a particular interest in the interface between actuarial work and medical science.

Before his (circa) twenty years at Willis Towers Watson (via legacy Watsons and Towers Watson), he worked for Aviva, including several years in Italy, and for the Actuarial Education Company tutoring life and mortality courses.

He is Chair of the CMI, Editor of the IFoA’s Longevity Bulletin and chaired the profession’s Antibiotic Resistance Working Party.

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Nicola Oliver

Director of Life & Health - Medical Intelligence

Nicola is considered a leading expert in Public Health and associated Mortality, Morbidity & Longevity risk.

Areas of specialist knowledge include; public health policy, socioeconomic disparities, impact of risk behaviours on life expectancy & future infectious disease risks.

Nicola supports actuaries from many of the leading consultancies, pension & insurance companies in Europe and the US, with underwriting, annuity pricing, product development as well as internal model calibration to fulfil regulatory requirement.

She leads a small research team within Medical Intelligence and continues to regularly present her work and speak at events for and on behalf of clients and to wider public audiences.

Prior to co-founding Medical Intelligence in 2007, Nicola worked for the NHS for 19 years specialising in Public Health, this followed many years in senior roles in Intensive Care Nursing and Paediatrics.

Nicola trained as a nurse and subsequently studied at Homerton College University of Cambridge, graduating with a PgDip in Neonatal Special and Intensive Care followed up with a BSc (Hons) in Public Health (Specialist Community).

Nicola has also studied Epidemiology with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Statistics.

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Stuart McDonald

Stuart is Head of Longevity and Demographic Insights at the consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP). He works across the Actuarial and Health Analytics teams, helping clients understand and manage the long-term
health and economic implications of the pandemic.

Prior to joining LCP he was responsible for demographic assumptions at Scottish Widows and previously led Munich Re’s longevity pricing team.

Stuart plays an active role within the actuarial profession, and is Deputy Chair elect of the Continuous Mortality Investigation. Early in 2020 he founded and co-chairs the COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group.

Stuart was awarded an MBE for services to Public Health in the 2022 New Year Honours.

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