People who know the Insurance Industry

Zenith has experience in a wide range of actuarial, finance and insurance business matters, gained from the work Zenith does for our clients, and the careers of our staff who have worked within the insurance industry and large actuarial consultancies. Our clients and careers cover dealing with UK, European and international insurance companies, mutual insurers and UK friendly societies.

We can provide specialist advice to insurers writing annuity business, income protection, with-profits, unit-linked, life and pensions saving, and many more aspects.

• 

  Scott Robinson

  Founder & CEO

  enquiries@zenithactuarial.com

  0161 711 1765

  Scott established Zenith Actuarial in early 2016 to develop an actuarial consulting and software business focused on the insurance industry. Prior to 2016, Scott was the leader of the UK Life practice for a major actuarial consulting business.

  Scott has over 20 years of experience in the life industry, including holding a number of approved person roles for UK and European insurers. He has worked with many insurers in UK and abroad, and also numerous friendly societies and mutual firms. He is currently a Chief Actuary and With Profits Actuary for a number of UK insurers. He has extensive experience of the insurance industry, including solvency and financial reporting, M&A work, capital optimisation, fund restructuring, investment strategy, product development and pricing, and a wide variety of project related experiences.

• 

  Martin Sher

  COO

  enquiries@zenithactuarial.com

  0161 711 1765

  Martin has over 25 years of experience in actuarial software, developing, implementing and bringing to the market a range of products. This includes actuarial projection systems, and Solvency II risk reporting analytical tools. He has worked for a number of large actuarial consultancies, as well as owning a prior business.

  Martin focuses on Zenith’s technology offerings and is passionate about changing the way we and clients access and consume analytics in a way that adds value to clients businesses.

  Whilst at Zenith, Martin has developed our Zenith Portal services which focuses for clients on streamlining and automating actuarial production, including data processing and validation, actuarial cashflow models, output use and visualisation.

  To learn more about Martin, take a look at his Meet the Team interview here. 

Our business is expanding and our team of consultants is growing. The details below provide a short summary for some of our team of consultants.

Director Level

• Dan Wainwright

  Commercial Director

  

  Prior to joining Zenith, Dan worked for several major actuarial consultancy and technology companies.  He has over 20 years-experience in the life insurance industry, and has led technology implementations, process reviews, and outsourcing agreements at major UK and International clients.  His recent focus has been on technology led finance transformation, identifying client needs and developing solutions to meet them.

  At Zenith, Dan is responsible for managing client relationships and helping the Zenith business grow, whilst ensuring clients receive the highest level of service.

• Claire Farrelly

  Client Development Director

  

  Claire has extensive experience of the insurance industry, having held many senior leadership roles within professional services firms. She has over 30 years’ experience working with a wide range of financial services firms and although primarily based in the UK, Claire has also worked throughout Europe, Asia and the US. Within Zenith, Claire focuses on our clients’ needs and our growth strategy, to ensure that we build on our business success to date, and deliver exceptional service and solutions to our clients. She also provides strategic advice, challenge and support to our leadership team.

  Prior to Zenith Actuarial, Claire was a Managing Director and Consulting Actuary at Willis Towers Watson, for over 10 years.  During that time, she headed the South-West Europe Insurance Consulting & Technology team, led the Life Insurance sales and development function in EMEA and had global responsibility for several large multinational insurer relationships. Her many leadership roles and responsibilities have spanned across life, GI and technology businesses. Claire also held senior positions within EY and KPMG, where she gained experience across a wide range of actuarial advisory work, including statutory reporting, capital management, M&A, actuarial transformations and software implementations.

• Andy Pennington

  Actuarial Director

  Prior to joining Zenith, Andy was previously the Chief Actuary and With-Profits Actuary for Guardian Assurance and was a key part of the management team in transforming Guardian to a closed book consolidator following its acquisition by Cinven, including the pricing and integration of several large annuity deals, large reinsurance deals, and the restructure of Guardian’s with-profits business.

  Andy currently holds Chief Actuary and With-Profit Actuary roles, and has a vast amount of experience in prudential/solvency reporting, financial reporting, insurance restructuring including reinsurance, cross-border work (European/worldwide), M&A, new business pricing.

  Andy specialises in Approved Person roles, M&A, restructuring and reinsurance arrangements.

• Tim Bateman

  Actuarial Director

  

  Tim’s extensive experience covers working at senior positions in industry, at consultancies and within the UK regulator. Prior to joining Zenith he worked at the FCA, and before that as a Partner leading the Mazars UK business, and also a director at Towers Watson. His industry roles include acting as Finance Director and Appointed Actuary. His knowledge covers a wide range of aspects of actuarial and insurance business, including Chief Actuary and With-Profits Actuary, prudential and financial reporting, business restructuring, M&A, and pricing.

  Tim specialises in Approved Person roles, regulatory issues, M&A, plus actuarial and insurance projects.

• Jeremy Nurse

  Actuarial Director

  

  Jeremy has over 35 years’ experience in the UK and European life and pensions markets and since 2001 has held various regulated roles for insurers domiciled in the UK, Ireland, Bermuda and Gibraltar, including several Chief Actuary roles as well as company director roles at previous employers including AIG and MetLife. In his most recent consulting role prior to joining Zenith in 2021, he specialised in advising on insurance company M&A transactions and other insurance regulatory work, including acting as a Skilled Person and an Independent Expert, in addition to holding several Approved Person / Chief Actuary roles. He has significant experience in the UK and other annuity and retirement markets, and has presented at several actuarial and other industry conferences.

  Jeremy specialises in Independent Expert work and roles, Approved Person / Chief Actuary roles, M&A, annuity business, including reinsurance, matching adjustment and equity release, plus extensive experience and variety of actuarial and insurance projects.

• Stewart Gracie

  Actuarial Director

  

  Prior to joining Zenith, Stewart was Director of Finance Strategy at M&G with overall responsibility for financial and capital management across the M&G Group, including Prudential’s With Profits Fund. Prior to that Stewart was Prudential’s Chief Actuary.  He has significant experience in the UK annuity market and in the financial management of with-profits business.  Stewart also currently holds a With Profits Actuary role.

  Stewart specialises in Approved Person roles, capital optimisation and the financial management of with-profits business.

Senior Actuaries

• Gemma Stonehouse

  Senior Actuary

  

  Gemma has worked in a number of UK insurance companies, including mutual organisations. Her experience covers Prudential and Financial reporting, including Solvency II, general Actuarial Function processes, and a wide variety of actuarial projects. Her previous roles have also included financial/actuarial transformation projects, including supporting the implementation of a large scale actuarial model change project. Whilst in Zenith Gemma has implemented a number of new business pricing and profitability projects, experience analysis, Solvency II, and M&A work.

  Gemma specialises in Prudential/Solvency reporting, Solvency II, new business strategy and product development and pricing/profitability, actuarial change projects, and M&A.

  To learn more about Gemma, read her Meet the Team post here.

• James Harrison

  Senior Actuary

  

  James has over 20 years’ experience, including extensive life consulting experience. He has significant financial and solvency reporting and capital management experience.

  Prior to Zenith, he worked at VitalityLife and as its Chief Actuary had responsibility for overseeing its Actuarial Function and for the actuarial analysis and risk assessment relating to the solvency forecasts and stress and scenario testing. He therefore has extensive Solvency II, capital and risk management experience. He also led the IFRS 17 implementation programme and helped to steer the ALM and hedging strategy as its Strategic Projects Director. James is accustomed to interacting with senior stakeholders throughout the business, including at Board level.
  
  He spent more than 10 years at large consultancies, namely Towers Watson (now WTW), both in the UK and in Spain, and PWC. He has significant experience in embedded value and IFRS reporting, and financial reporting processes and controls, as well as M&A due diligence work.