Speakers Biographies
Solange Berstein
Solange Berstein graduated from the Universidad de Santiago de Chile as an Economist and has a Master degree in Economic from ILADES/Georgetown University. She completed her Ph.D. in Economics at Boston University.
She worked in the Studies Division at de Superintendence of Pension Funds in Chile between 1994 and 1997 and was head of this division from 2003 until February 2006. After completing her PhD she worked as a Senior Economist in the Central Bank of Chile and has been a consultant for the World Bank in pension matters. Mrs. Berstein has been involved in pension issues for 12 years and has written articles related to pensions in a broad set of topics: investment of pension funds, competition on the pension fund industry and coverage of the contributory pension system in Chile. She is currently Superintendent of Pension Fund Administrators in Chile and teaches Public Finance and Industrial Organization in the University of Chile.
Christopher David Daykin, CB, HON DSC, MA, FIA, FSA, HON FFA
Chris Daykin has been the Government Actuary and head of the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) since April 1989. He graduated with a 1st Class honours degree in mathematics from Cambridge University (UK) in 1970 and qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (FIA) in 1973. Employed at GAD since 1970, he has worked for UK and many international clients on pension fund consultancy, population projections, social security, national pension policy, pension reform, risk management, the supervision of insurance companies, compensation in personal injury cases and valuing loss of pension rights for employment tribunal cases.
He was President of the Institute of Actuaries from 1994 to 1996 and Chairman of the International Forum of Actuarial Associations (IFAA) from 1996 to 1997. He has been the Chairman of the Technical Commission for Statistical, Actuarial and Financial Studies of the International Social Security Association since 1992. He was Chairman of the Education Committee of the European Actuarial Consultative Group from 1992 to 2006. He chaired the Professionalism Committee of the International Actuarial Association (IAA) from 1999 to 2002 and since 2003 he has been Chairman of the Pensions, Benefits and Social Security Section of the IAA and a member of the Executive Committee of the IAA.
He has written numerous papers on actuarial topics, including pensions, social security, general insurance, life insurance, genetics and insurance, demography and AIDS. He is joint author of the book Practical Risk Theory for Actuaries with Teivo Pentikäinen and Martti Pesonen. In 1998 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Institute of Actuaries. In 1993 he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath by Her Majesty the Queen. He is an honorary visiting professor at City University, London and at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Lawrie Savage – President of LS&A
Lawrie has been involved with the Canadian financial sector for over 40 years, having held senior positions in supervision, the financial industry and consulting. He served as Superintendent of Insurance for the province of Ontario from 1991 to 1995 and worked in senior positions with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI), from 1966 to 1985. For the last 8 years with OSFI he was in charge of property/casualty insurance supervision. He was CEO of a Canadian life company for 3 years and also served as Vice Chair of a general insurer. He was Director, Insurance Consulting Services for Coopers & Lybrand Consulting in Toronto, Canada prior to establishing Lawrie Savage & Associates Inc. in 1997. He is author of "Re-engineering Insurance Supervision", a comprehensive paper jointly commissioned by the Inter-American Development Bank and The World Bank. He is also author of the IAIS/World Bank Core Curriculum modules for the areas of “Preventive and Corrective Measures” and “Supervisory Reporting”. Lawrie has carried out many assignments in Canada and has also specialized in working with emerging market countries to modernize their financial supervisory infrastructures and to provide staff training. Risk based supervision has been a focus of many of his recent assignments. Lawrie is a member of the Insurance Advisory Committee of the Toronto International Leadership Centre for Financial Sector Supervision and a member of the Advisory Board for the Risk Studies Centre at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. He is a director of the Property and Casualty Insurance Compensation Corporation, Canada’s insurance consumer compensation plan. Lawrie has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Calgary and an MBA from the Ivey School of Business (Dean’s List).
Dr Brian McCulloch
Dr Brian McCulloch is a Director in international section of the New Zealand Treasury. Since joining the Treasury in 1989, Dr McCulloch has undertaken various management and advisory roles, mainly in the area of Financial management policy and strategy. He has led the policy development for the establishment of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and he has presented various papers and articles on the structure and governance of public funds. Dr McCulloch is a Chartered Accountant and he holds a Ph.D in Accounting Finance from the School of Business at the University of Washington.
Dr Alberto Roque Musalem
Alberto Roque Musalem holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. Since 2005, he has been the Chief Economist at the Center for Financial Stability in Buenos Aires, and occasionally works as a consultant to the IMF and the World Bank. From 1985 to 2004 he was a staff member of the World Bank. From 1998-2004, he was an adviser on contractual savings (pension and life insurance) and the tax treatment of financial instruments in the Financial Sector Development Department. He pioneered the work on contractual savings at the Bank when he led the production of the first report of its kind: Mexico -Contractual Savings in 1990. He also worked on similar projects in countries such as Argentina, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Korea, the Lebanon, Morocco, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Uruguay. Dr. Musalem also has contributed to the research and analysis of the effects of contractual savings on national saving and financial markets. During 1985 to 1997, Dr. Musalem led the dialogue on trade and financial sector policies in several countries in Latin America, Middle East and Eastern Europe. His experience prior to joining the World Bank includes work for the Rockefeller and Ford Foundation as a visiting professor in graduate economics programmes in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States (1971-1984). From 1968 to 1970, he worked as a staff of the Harvard Institute of International Development as advisor to the Economic Planning Department of the Government of Colombia on macroeconomics, trade and financial sector policies. He is the author of numerous publications in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Germany, the USA and working papers at the World Bank Working Papers Series.
Bruce PflaumManaging Director - AsiaRussell Investment Group
B.B.A., Business, College of William and Mary in Virginia, 1975
M.M. with honours, Finance/Economics, Northwestern University, 1981
Based in Singapore, Bruce Pflaum oversees the Asian business of Russell Investment Group, and is responsible for Russell’s initiatives and business development in the region.
Russell Investment Group is the global leader in the provision of multi-manager investment solutions. Russell is also recognized as one of the world’s leading investment management and advisory firms, advising large investors in more than 30 countries on investment strategy.
Bruce first joined Russell in New Zealand in 1995 as Director of Consulting for Russell’s New Zealand and Asian clients after more than 10 years of experience living and working in Asia. In 1997, Bruce assumed overall responsibility for Russell’s business development in Asia, and in 1999 became Managing Director of Russell’s newly established Singapore office.
A veteran of the trading markets, Bruce spent nearly two decades in wide-ranging trading and risk management roles in the U.S., Japan and Hong Kong prior to joining Russell. With his extensive experience in the global capital markets, Bruce provides specific expertise in portfolio risk management and the trading markets for Russell clients. During the course of his Asian experience Bruce has dealt with a wide range of clients and financial issues across a variety of cultures. His breadth of experience in working with Asian and Western companies in the Asian financial markets provides Russell with key insights into this important region of the globe.
A native of Chicago, Bruce has an interest in travel and cultures and moved to Singapore in 1999.