I started my actuarial career in the pensions team at Mercer in Manchester in September 2010 – having done an 8-week Summer Placement there in the previous summer before my final year of a MMath Mathematics degree at the University of Sheffield.
At Mercer, I worked predominantly with trustee clients, but was also part of the specialist bulk purchase annuity (BPA) brokering team – operating back in the days when there were only 2 insurers in the BPA market – Prudential and L&G. How times have changed!
I moved to KPMG’s pensions team (now known as Isio) in 2006, qualifying as an actuary in 2008 – having taken 6 years to get halfway through the exams, but only 2 years to complete them…once I finally got my head down! At KPMG, I gained exposure to corporate advice, including liability management, pension cost accounting, and strategic pension design, as well as continuing to advise trustee clients.
I joined First Actuarial in 2010 to take on Scheme Actuary roles and I became a Partner just over 4 years later at the age of 36, going on to lead the firm’s employer strategy team and a key member of its marketing and lead generation teams. I also held a number of distinguished roles within the actuarial profession and the pensions industry – including Chair of the IFoA’s working party on State Pension Age and independent actuarial adviser to the Firefighters’ (England) Pension Scheme Advisory Board – before leaving First Actuarial in 2021.
