Biography: Charles Cowling
President
Charles Cowling began his tenure as President of the International Actuarial Association on January 1, 2024.
As President, Charles also serves as chair of the Executive Committee and of the Council, as well as being an Officer of the organization. Charles is also a member of the Nominations Committee and Ex-Officio of the Strategic Planning Committee. Prior to 2023, he served as chair of the Advance Committee. Since starting his involvement with the IAA, he was a member of the Executive Committee (2018-2021), Chair of the Renewal Task Force (2018-19), Chair of Pensions and Employee Benefits Committee (2019-20) and Vice-Chair (2017-18), IAA delegate to the OECD and IOPS (2019-present), IAA delegate to the IASB (2019-present), and IAA delegate to the PBSS Section.
Charles was born in Manchester, United Kingdom and graduated with a BSc (Hons) from Durham University in 1984 and became Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (IFoA) in 1991. He is also a Chartered Mathematician (1999), Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (2003) and Chartered Scientist (2005).
Charles began his career as a systems analyst with Royal Insurance UK Ltd (1980-1983) then he began his actuarial consulting career with Duncan C Fraser (now Mercer) in 1984 in progressive roles until 2006. In 2007, he began working with JLT Pension Capital Strategies Ltd until 2020 having reached the role of Chief Actuary. In 2018, he returned to Mercer following their acquisition of JLT and is currently employed as their Chief Actuary.
Charles has served on five occasions on the IFoA Council (total of 16 years since 2003) and in numerous other roles, including chairmanship of six different boards or groups. In 2021, he was given the President's Award for his contributions to the Actuarial Profession. He has also served in a number of roles with the Worshipful Company of Actuaries, Pensions Committee of the Actuarial Association of Europe, Association of Consulting Actuaries and Pensions Policy Institute. He has authored several publications and presented a numerous conferences in the UK and across the world.
Charles is married to Becky and has four children (Tom, Toby, Hal and Sally). He is training for ordination in the Church of England, and enjoys fell walking with his family and fell running - and charity fundraising marathons. He also has a passion for music, especially choral and church music, amateur dramatics and opera. He is a member of the Manchester Chamber Choir and Herdwyck Consort.
January 2024