Candidates for Regular Director

Mary J. Bahna-Nolan, MAAA, FSA, CERA
Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Mary Bahna-Nolan has been nominated to serve a three-year term. The term will be completed in 2014.

Bio:
Mary Bahna-Nolan is a director in the actuarial and insurance management solutions life practice in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Chicago office. She provides advisory services to life insurance and reinsurance clients, most recently focusing on principle-based reporting standards, economic capital and capital management, governance and controls, market consistent embedded value, and expense and performance management.

Bahna-Nolan has 22 years of extensive product development, pricing, product and risk management, and reinsurance experience. Before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, she was vice president and chief actuary for North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, where she was responsible for product and reinsurance strategy, pricing, product management, reinsurance administration and treaty development, and capital solutions. She served as North American's chief risk officer for several years. She began her career at Sun Life of Canada and later worked at Transamerica Reinsurance, where she was responsible for pricing and treaty negotiation.

Bahna-Nolan has been actively involved in the Academy's work on a principle-based approach to reserving and risk-based capital, and she is a member of the Academy's Life Practice Council and the Life Capital Adequacy Subcommittee. She also is the chairperson of the Academy's Individual Life Experience Subcommittee and a member of the Academy's Enterprise Risk Management Committee.

Personal Statement:
Why I want to serve on the Academy board of directors?
I am interested in serving on the Academy board of directors as I feel our profession is at a pinnacle in terms of our ability to raise the awareness and relevance of actuaries, both from a professionalism standpoint as well as public policy standpoint. There are many changes facing our profession, including regulatory reform, health care reform, federal versus state regulation, and international convergence of financial reporting standards. These changes introduce new and exciting opportunities and challenges for our profession. They also introduce new risks and can potentially challenge actuaries to maintain the level of professionalism we are known for. I feel my leadership experience (on previous boards of directors and in executive management) and communication style enable me to communicate the vision of the Academy and articulate emerging issues for the profession. I have and currently continue to serve on various Academy and other actuarial organization committees and task forces. Through these volunteer efforts, I feel I have demonstrated my abilities to bring a balanced and thoughtful approach to discussions, debates, and decision making by thoughtful consideration of the position of others and have proven my ability to get things done.

What I believe are the most important issues facing the American Academy of Actuaries?
I believe some of the most important issues facing the American Academy of Actuaries are related to changes in financial reporting standards and the role our profession plays in shaping health care and Social Security reform in the United States. All of these have the opportunity to elevate the role and relevance of the actuary. However, other professionals are actively involved in these changes, including accountants, economists, and other public policymakers. We need to be proactive and out in front of these issues, have a voice in their developments and demonstrate the value our profession can bring to evaluating, analyzing, and shaping such changes. In addition, we need to understand the additional responsibilities that come with some of these changes, including strong risk management and most importantly professionalism. We need to ensure our standards and practices are such to operate in the new paradigm and that actuaries understand the reputational reward and risk that comes with such opportunity and that we have the resources to participate in a meaningful manner in their shaping.

Ken Kent, MAAA, EA, FCA, FSA
Consulting Actuary, Cheiron Inc.

Ken Kent has been nominated to serve a three-year term. The term will be completed in 2014.

Bio:
Ken Kent is a consulting actuary in Cheiron's McLean, Va., office, where he focuses on public-employer and multiemployer plans. Kent has more than 35 years of experience consulting for both private- and public-sector pension plans. In his current work, Kent strives to help organizations realize the financial efficiencies of defined benefit plans in providing retirement security for their employees.

Kent is a long-time Academy volunteer involved with both pension and professionalism issues. He is currently a member of the Academy's Council on Professionalism and is the chairperson of the Joint Committee on the Code of Professional Conduct. He also served on the Academy's board of directors as a special director in 2001 and 2002 and as the vice president of the Academy's Pension Practice Council in 2004 and 2005. Kent served as a member of the Critical Review of the U.S. Actuarial Profession (CRUSAP) Task Force and as a member of the Academy's Public Plans Practices Task Force. He also is the former chairperson of the Academy's Public Plans Subcommittee.

Personal statement:
Why I want to serve on the Academy board of directors?
I am continuously interested in the promotion of the profession and enjoy serving as a volunteer for the Academy. I wish to continue to share ideas and provide ways the organization can serve the profession and the public.

What I believe are the most important issues facing the American Academy of Actuaries?
Increasing the profession's relevance, both perceived and in real terms, by enhancing our contribution to society through the opportunities we have in providing concrete and unbiased information and professional and measured opinions to decision makers.

I believe this can be achieved, even when our profession, made up of intelligent individuals, often has diverse opinions on the same issue, which preclude our ability to achieve consensus positions. By bringing that diversity of our professional viewpoints to the public in ways that can be understood and absorbed, the actuarial profession can provide an important society service through the education of why risk taking is important and the opportunities risk pooling can provide to enhance our lives.

Catherine Murphy-Barron, MAAA, FSA
Principal and consulting Actuary, Milliman Inc.

Catherine Murphy-Barron has been nominated to serve a three-year term. The term will be completed in 2014.

Bio:
Catherine Murphy-Barron is a consulting actuary in the New York office of Milliman Inc., where she focuses primarily on health insurance and managed care consulting. Since joining the firm in 1991, Murphy-Barron has assisted clients with pricing, benefit plan design, cost projections, risk analysis, and claim liability estimates. She continues to help clients with reimbursement and incentive system development, including capitation, pay for performance, and other incentive arrangements. She also assists clients with their regulatory filings and experience analysis.

Murphy-Barron recently served a one-year term (as a result of a vacancy) as a regular director of the Academy's board of directors. She is a dedicated member of the Academy's Health Practice Council. She currently is the chairperson of the Committee on Federal Health Issues. Murphy-Barron is a member and former chairperson of the Uninsured Work Group. She is also a member of the Premium Review Subcommittee and the Disease Management Work Group.

Personal statement:
Why I want to serve on the Academy board of directors?
Ten years ago I began volunteering with the Health Practice Council of the American Academy of Actuaries in order to give back to the profession, which has continually rewarded me throughout my career. Actuaries have a unique point of view. We must share our expertise with community, state, and federal leadership to ensure the solutions to today's problems do not bring unintended consequences due to ignorance. This is much more critical today, in this era of health care reform. I will continue my work with the Health Practice Council, but additionally, I wish to serve on the Academy board to provide service to the public and the profession beyond the realm of health care. I also want to encourage others in the profession to volunteer their time and skills to ensure a
better future for all.

What I believe are the most important issues facing the American Academy of Actuaries?
One of the primary issues facing the actuarial profession is the public's perception of us as technicians rather than big-picture thinkers capable of taking on leadership roles. Although this has improved in recent years, our profession continues to struggle with the fact that people don't know or understand what we do. In addition, other professions, such as economists, are entering what has traditionally been our area of expertise. These professions are thought to have a more macro rather than micro outlook, which tends to marginalize our profession. The challenge for us is to become recognized as big-picture thinkers to compete with these other, better known professions.

Many of the problems facing the country today demand the actuarial point of view. As the public policy arm of our profession, it is the Academy that must provide it. The concepts we present are complex, with no easy solutions. The Academy's difficult mission is to convey our viewpoint in a manner that is easily understood but also conveys the complexity of issues and the difficulty in finding a solution, without being viewed as never being able to take a position.