Presenters

Chairman
Dr. K. (Ravi) Ravindran
Founding Partner, Annuity Systems Inc. (ASI)

Dr. K. (Ravi) Ravindran currently spends much of his time traveling, lecturing and very selectively working on risk–management/trading consulting assignments around the globe. In addition to this, he runs a private hedge fund that arbitrages mispriced products across different markets globally and holds a visiting professor appointment in Haskolinn Reykjavik (Iceland).

As a pioneer to apply derivatives–based hedging techniques to manage market risks embedded in variable annuities, Ravindran's experience and appointments include:

• Developing equity–based guarantee products and managing in excess of $100 billion in account value for insurance companies selling these products;
• Running exotic derivatives desk globally at Toronto Dominion Bank;
• Holding position of CEO of RGA Financial Products (a subsidiary of Reinsurance Group of America);
• Holding past adjunct professorships at both the University of Waterloo and University of Calgary;
• Writing the well–received book entitled Customized Derivatives: A Step–by–Step Guide to Using Exotic Options, Swaps, and Other Customized Derivatives;
• Acting as associate editor of the book entitled Handbook of Derivatives; and
• Writing/editing papers, of which some have formed and continue to form part of the professional exams in various societies.

Michael Chun runs the Institutional Structured Sales team for JPMorgan's Equity Derivatives Group in the US. His team provides structuring and trading services to insurance companies, corporate and public pension funds, endowments and asset managers. Prior to joining JPMorgan, Michael spent over ten years with Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank in their equity derivatives businesses. Michael also spent three years with a venture–capital backed trading technology company in San Francisco called Intelligent Markets, Inc.

David Florian is Director of Reinsurance with Wachovia. He is also the CEO and Chairman of Union Hamilton Reinsurance, Ltd.; Wachovia's Bermuda reinsurance company. Union Hamilton focuses primarily on variable annuity base, living benefit rider risk and life surplus relief transactions such as term triple–x and AXXX redundant reserves. David is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an associate in the Society of Actuaries. He has worked both in life company home offices and in the field running a nationally licensed agency and technology company.

John Marcsik is Vice President, Equity Derivatives Management, AEGON USA Investment Management, LLC.  He has 13 years experience working in the Life Insurance industry including risk management of variable annuity benefits, institutional market products and derivatives management.  Mr. Marcsik holds a PhD in Mathematics from The Ohio State University.

Hubert Mueller is a senior consultant with the Tillinghast insurance consulting practice of Towers Perrin in the firm's Hartford office. He has been with the firm since 1986. He is a principal of Towers Perrin, and a member of the firm's Global Enterprise Risk Management Team, where he leads the ERM practice for life insurers in the Americas. He also manages the firm's quarterly CFO Survey. His more than 20 years of consulting experience covers a variety of areas. Mr. Mueller is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA). He is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries' Life Capital Adequacy Subcommittee and the Annuity Capital Working Group. He is also a qualified German Actuary (Aktuar DAV). Mr. Mueller is a frequent speaker at industry seminars in the U.S. and Europe and has co–authored several articles on insurance topics in trade publications in the U.S. and Germany. Born and educated in Germany, Mr. Mueller received an M.S. in mathematics and economics (Wirtschaftsmathematik) from the Albert Einstein University at Ulm, Germany. He also received an M.S. in probability and statistics from Syracuse University.

Robert Painter is a Director in the Quantitative Products Structuring Group with Deutsche Bank Securities Global Markets Equity.  He focuses on developing equity-linked solutions and products for insurance companies and pension funds.  Prior to joining Deutsche Bank he was a lead consultant for Conning and Company focusing on ALM/ERM and investment strategy consulting and has held management roles at a variety of primary insurance companies.

Eric Petersen is an Assistant Vice President with Americo Financial Life and Annuity Insurance Company.  Over his 11 years with Americo he has led the development, design, and pricing of a wide range of individual life and annuity products including a number of Equity Index Annuity and Life products.

Andy Rallis is a Senior Vice President with MetLife and is responsible for asset/liability management. He is currently focused on hedging and risk management for domestic and international variable annuity products as well as measuring market risk for general account products. He is also responsible for cash flow testing and C3 Phase I RBC modeling, and is currently involved in various implementation issues for FAS 157 and FAS 159. He has extensive capital markets, US GAAP and statutory financial reporting and pricing experience for a wide range of products.

Matthew Wion is a senior actuarial advisor in the Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services practice of Ernst & Young and is based in the firm's New York office. He focuses on pricing, valuation and risk management of equity–linked products including implementing dynamic hedging programs. He is also experienced in financial modeling, financial reporting, asset liability management and implementation of replicating portfolios for a variety of life and annuity products.

Frank Zhang is a Director in the Global Equity and Derivatives Solutions of Société Générale. He focuses on the structured solutions for the US insurance companies. The range of products offered to Société Générale's insurance clients in the US includes structured solutions for GMxB guarantees within VA and EIA, structured and alternative investments. Prior to joining Société Générale, Mr. Zhang worked for ING as Vice President and Head of Structured Derivatives Strategies/Head of Quantitative Modeling and was actively involved in ING's hedging program for variable annuity and equity indexed annuity, from developing the hedging program analytics, running the day–to–day hedging operations, to developing asset and hedging strategies. Mr. Zhang has also worked for several major life insurance companies, including Prudential Financial, Ameriprise, and Aviva. Mr. Zhang holds FSA, FRM, PRM and is a CFA Charterholder.