The term served by the president of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries has been changed from the current one year to a two-year term as part of the organisation’s efforts to strengthen and modernise its governance.

A spokesperson of the IFoA told mallowstreet: "We have been aware for some time that the current one-year presidential term has felt too short and is challenging from in terms of continuity and effective leadership. On hearing from past presidents, most said that they feel they’ve only just got to grips with the job by the time their Presidential term is over."

The first president elected with this term is expected to serve from June 2025 to 2027. The current post holder is former Aviva chief risk actuary Matt Saker, who is due to be replaced by Kalpana Shah, a non-executive director for Just Group, Markel, Asta and Riverstone. 

Shah’s inaugural presidential address was due to take place later this month on 27 June. However, it has been postponed due to operational reasons. Kartina Tahir Thomson at WTW will take over Shah’s presidency in June 2024.

The IFoA’s decision to extend the presidential term was approved at the IFoA’s council meeting on Wednesday alongside other measures to support the organisation’s ambition to be a “globally leading professional body, promoting accountability and diversity”. 

The changes are expected to go live in the first half of 2024. 

As part of the changes, the existing management board will be transformed into a new unitary board with an independent chair, a role which the IFoA will advertise “in due course”. The unitary board will be composed of nine members in total - four independent non-executive directors, including the chair, four IFoA member non-executive directors, one of whom will be the president, and the CEO. All existing council and management board sub-committees will report to the unitary board.

According to the membership organisation, the council will remain the IFoA’s ultimate decision-making body and will retain appropriate reserved powers, but it will delegate its oversight, strategy, planning and reporting responsibilities to the unitary board. 

Saker said: “Our ambition to be a leading global professional body means we must continue to provide a governance structure that is modern and fit for purpose.

“Council has signalled clear support for the changes, decisively voting to commit to the new structure and processes. We can now move into the implementation stage with clear principles on the initial set-up and robust rules for the long-term success of this process.”

The IFoA is a not-for-profit chartered body for educating, developing and regulating actuaries based in the UK and internationally. They also have a statutory role to provide actuarial opinions for managing agents at Lloyd’s of London.