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

• 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

  Senior Actuary

  

  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

  Senior Actuary

  

  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.

• 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.

Senior Actuaries

• Jane Parker

  Senior Actuary

  

  Jane has a significant level of expertise and experience in prudential and financial reporting, as well as a wealth of wider actuarial projects, such as finance transformation and M&A. Her financial reporting roles include leading on IFRS 17 projects. Prior to Zenith Jane worked at KPMG, and had previously worked in industry, managing a team of actuarial resources, and delivering year-end processes.

  Jane specialises in Prudential/Solvency reporting, IFRS, Solvency II, with-profits business, actuarial processes (including audit).

• Mark Bowyer

  Senior Actuary

  Mark has significant experience and knowledge in Prudential and Financial reporting, including Solvency II and IFRS/EV approaches. He has worked in a number of large insurers and has detailed understanding of Actuarial Function processes, including experience analysis, new business profitability and reporting, Solvency reporting, standard formula and internal models, expense allocation and analysis. He has experience in working many different types of capital and fund structures, and products, such as annuities, with-profits, protection and savings. Mark’s roles have also involved the implementation of financial transformation/change projects, such as reporting processes, and actuarial models.

  Mark specialises in Prudential/Solvency reporting, Solvency II, annuity business, with-profits, protection business, reinsurance transactions and arrangements, financial transformation projects, and M&A.

• 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.

• John Leavey

  Senior Actuary

  

  John’s experience has been gained in a number of multinational insurance companies working in the UK, Turkey, Middle East, and Asia. He has experience in working in start-up environments, and developing business strategy, new business product development and pricing, Prudential and Financial reporting, including EV approaches. At Zenith his roles have included Actuarial Function and Solvency II processes, business planning and projections, ORSA, and reinsurance treaty analysis.

  John specialises in new business start-up and business strategy, financial reporting and EV Prudential/Solvency II reporting, product development and pricing/profitability.

• Stewart Gracie

  Senior Actuary

  

  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.

• 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.

Actuaries, consultants, analysts and business functions

• Tom Barnish

  Portal operations manager & Actuary

  

  Tom has extensive insurance consulting experience, including developing Solvency II analytics, and designing actuarial models. Tom has a large amount of experience in implementing processes, and production of valuation work, for prudential/solvency and financial reporting. Tom’s previous role was at Towers Watson.

  Tom specialises in actuarial model development, implementing and onboarding processes, finance transformation, automation, use of systems including Visual Studio/Azure.

• Hannah Llewellyn

  Operations Manager

  Hannah has a wide and varied amount of experience in and around Actuarial having worked for a large insurer, and global consultancy. This covers Valuation, Systems Development, Change Management, and Risk and Audit, which provides Hannah with a sound understanding of Actuarial operations. Within Zenith, Hannah is involved in many aspects of delivery, with a focus on strengthening and refining project management tools and methodologies.

  Hannah specialises in Actuarial change management, PMO, business integration, and process improvements.

• Brian Heale

  Evo-Insight Product Manager

• Maisarah Asri

  Actuary

  

  Maisarah is an experienced actuary with a wide variety of actuarial knowledge and skills, particularly in Solvency II, financial reporting, with-profits and bonus setting. Prior to joining Zenith she worked in industry and led the actuarial team for the delivery of business-as-usual tasks, including Solvency II, and many different projects.

  Maisarah specialises in Prudential/Solvency reporting, Solvency II, annuity business, matching adjustment, actuarial projects.

• Tim Hill

  Actuary

  

  Tim has experience of consulting with a number of multinational insurers, providing product development and pricing advice. This has involved specialised product advice in the protection area, covering term assurance, income protection and group business. At Zenith, Tim has been involved in new business pricing and profitability projects, and financial and Solvency II reporting.

  Tim specialises in new business strategy and product development, pricing and profitability. He also focuses on process improvement, and Actuarial Function processes such as financial and Solvency II reporting.

• Catherine Zhang

  Actuary

  

  Catherine has worked in a number of UK insurance companies, and her experience covers Solvency II and Actuarial Function processes, including with-profits, unit-linked and protection business. Her experience also includes asset management businesses. At Zenith Catherine has been involved in a number of financial and actuarial transformations and implementations, and the Actuarial Function processes needed to produce financial and Solvency II reporting.

  Catherine specialises in Prudential/Solvency reporting, Solvency II, income protection business, process automation and improvement, actuarial projects.

• Andrew Luetchford

  Actuary

  

  Andrew has a large amount of experience and knowledge gained from working in a mutual insurer. This covers all aspects of Actuarial Function business as usual work, such as data processing, experience analysis, assumption setting, models, financial and Solvency II reporting, with-profits and bonus setting. Within Zenith Andrew has been involved in a financial and actuarial transformation and model implementation, and financial and Solvency II reporting.

  Andrew specialises in actuarial model development and implementation, specialist actuarial techniques (such as with-profits stochastic and closed-form), Actuarial Function processes, automation, and financial transformation projects.

• Naeem Irshad

  Actuary

  

  Naeem has experience of working in, and being a consultant to, a number of UK insurers. This includes with-profits business processes and bonus setting, product analysis and review frameworks, and new business assessment. At Zenith he has been involved in Solvency II reporting processes, including asset analysis, data process analysis, and Group Life business.

  Naeem specialises in actuarial processes and automation, Solvency II processes and reporting, with-profits business.

• Muizur Choudhury

  Actuary

  

  Muizur has extensive life insurance experience, both working in a life office and working in a consultancy. Muizur has worked in economic capital reporting, Solvency II reporting development, actuarial integration, model development and product governance. Muizur’s previous roles were at ReAssure, Milliman and Aviva.

  Muizur specialises in Finance Transformations and Actuarial Change.

• James Beardwood

  Actuary

  

  James has worked in several different UK insurance companies and has experience in both IFRS and Solvency II reporting. This includes working on a wide range of life products for different providers ranging from very small to very large businesses.

  James has a wide range of experience and specialises in process improvement, model development and actuarial change.

• Thamaya Wignesvaran

  Actuary

  Thamaya has worked for both insurance companies and consultancies. Her experience covers IFRS17, Solvency II and Actuarial Function business as usual work. At Zenith Thamaya has been involved in product development and pricing work.

  Thamaya specialises in IFRS17 reporting for income protection business as well as process automation and remediation projects.

• Tom Matthews

  Actuary

  Tom has significant knowledge and experience from working in a large mutual insurer. He has specialised in Reinsurance covering both protection and longevity products. This has given Tom experience in multiple aspects of work including valuations, collateral management, and experience analyses.

  His experience also covers significant process development and improvements.

• Michaela Fyfe

  Actuary

• Amy Harrison

  Consultant

  

  Amy has experience working in a number of UK insurers including mutual firms. This has covered Actuarial Function business as usual processes, such as financial and Solvency II reporting, ORSA analysis and business projections, with-profits reporting and bonus setting processes, experience analysis, process development and improvement. Since joining Zenith Amy has been involved in Actuarial Function processes such as Solvency II reporting, monthly solvency, with-profit asset share analysis and bonus setting, experience analysis, expense investigations, and process improvement and automation.

  Amy specialises in Actuarial Function/Solvency II processes and delivery, processes automation, with-profits processes.

• Christos Michailides

  Analyst

  

  Christos has a background in actuarial consultancy and has gained experience in onboarding new clients, preparing data, and producing Solvency II valuation results.  He has also been involved in product reviews for friendly societies, and data transformation for insurance companies.

• Jennifer Quinn

  Analyst

  

  Jennifer joined Zenith as a graduate and has specialised in data manipulation and data mapping with insurance companies.  She has also been involved in experience analysis and customer quotations for friendly societies.

• Joan Takaindisa

  Senior Analyst

  

  Joan has a background in investment reporting and analysis.  She has been involved in Solvency II reporting, data transformation and internal audit of actuarial processes.

• Jordan Unsworth

  Analyst

  

  Jordan has a background in data analysis and has gained experience in Solvency II reporting, updating asset information and performing asset stresses.

• Maham Amjad

  Senior Analyst

  

  Maham has a varied background in Actuarial Consultancy as well as working with Insurance and Reinsurance Companies. She has gained experience in Solvency II Reporting, Pricing Development, Capacity Modelling, and Actuarial Reserving Techniques. She also has comprehensive experience working in the Actuarial Pensions Sector.

• Ben Murphy

  Analyst

  Ben joined Zenith as a Physics graduate with programming skills. He has been involved with experience analysis and monthly valuation.

• Craig Phiri

  Placement Student

  Craig has joined us as a 1 year placement student having completed his 2 year in his Actuarial Science and Mathematics degree at the University of Manchester.

• Irfan Dhanji

  Placement Student

  Irfan has joined us as a 1 year placement student having completed his 2 year in his Actuarial Science and Mathematics degree at the University of Manchester.

• Caroline Evans

  Office Manager

  

  Caroline is the Zenith office manager and provides support to all of the Zenith team including meetings, staff issues, management of the Zenith offices and services.

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