John Solursh, Chairman of the Actuarial Standards Oversight Council (ASOC), today announced the appointment of Charles McLeod to the position of Chairman of the Actuarial Standards Board (ASB), effective July 1.

“The mission of the Actuarial Standards Board is to develop, establish and maintain Standards of Practice, which govern actuarial practice in Canada. The ASB is now a year and a half old and has a number of important initiatives underway. Mr. McLeod’s background and experience make him the perfect choice to take on the role of Chairperson and to lead the ASB through its heavy agenda for the next two years,” stated Solursh.

McLeod qualified as an actuary in 1969. He spent most of his career working for, or consulting to life insurance and reinsurance companies. Since qualifying as an actuary, he has worked mainly in Canada, but he has also lived and worked in South Africa, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

He was President of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries in 2005-2006, and among his many accomplishments that year, he laid the groundwork for the creation of an independent standard-setting process for the Canadian actuarial profession, in the public interest. In response to increased expectations for accountability and transparency in the new business environment, the resulting bodies, the ASB and the ASOC, were established by the Institute as independent organizations empowered with mandates for developing actuarial Standards of Practice and overseeing the standard-setting process.

Created in June 2006, the ASB was led by Geoffrey Guy. According to Solursh, “I believe both the profession and the public owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Guy for the ASB’s remarkable accomplishments in the past two years. These include crafting a new due process for the adoption of Standards of Practice.”