ICA 2010 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Paul Embrechts

Paul Embrechts is Professor of Mathematics at the ETH Zurich specialising in actuarial mathematics and quantitative risk management. Previous academic positions include the Universities of Leuven, Limburg and London (Imperial College). Dr Embrechts has held visiting professorships at the University of Strasbourg, ESSEC Paris, the Scuola Normale in Pisa (Cattedra Galileiana), the London School of Economics (Centennial Professor of Finance), the University of Vienna, Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne), and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waterloo.

He is an Elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Actuary-SAA, Honorary Fellow of the Institute and the Faculty of Actuaries, Corresponding Member of the Italian Institute of Actuaries and is on the editorial board of numerous scientific journals. He belongs to various national and international research and academic advisory committees.

He co-authored the influential books "Modelling of Extremal Events for Insurance and Finance", Springer, 1997 and "Quantitative Risk Management: Concepts, Techniques and Tools", Princeton UP, 2005. Dr Embrechts consults on issues in quantitative risk management for financial institutions, insurance companies and international regulatory authorities.

Pravin Gordhan

Positions

• Member of Parliament from 1994 until 1998
• Chairperson of the Constitutional Committee in Parliament from 1996
• Deputy Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service from March 1998
• Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service from November 1999
• Minister of Finance of the Republic of South Africa from 11 May 2009

Academic Qualifications

• Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Durban Westville (1973)

Career/Positions/Memberships/Other Activities

• Became involved in politics during the late 1960s
• Organised and led the student movement and civic structures during the 1970s and 1980s
• Took part in the Natal Indian Congress call to boycott elections in the 1980s
• Detained three times by the apartheid government
• Spent four years in the underground structures
• Was also involved in the South African Communist Party (SACP) and African National Congress (ANC)
• Worked as a pharmacist at the King Edward VII hospital in Durban until he was expelled after his detention by the police. (1974 – 1981)
• Participated in the in multi-party talks at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). (1990)
• Co-chairperson of the Transitional Executive Council which prepared the country for the 1994 elections. (1991 – 1994)
• Played a role in drafting the White Paper on Local Government which laid the foundation for developing local government authorities
• Chairperson of the Constitutional Committee in Parliament, which had oversight over the implementation of the new constitution, adopted in 1996
• Chairperson of the World Customs Organization (WCO) until July 2006
• Chairperson of the Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 2008

Yoshihiro Kawai

Yoshihiro Kawai is the Secretary General of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). He joined the IAIS in 1998 as Deputy Secretary General and became the Secretary General in 2003.

His qualifications include a PhD from City University, London with the thesis “The reform of insurance supervisory systems for economies in transition”; an MBA from INSEAD Fontainebleau with a specialisation in Economics and Finance; and a BA in Education and Sociology from the University of Tokyo.

Mr Kawai started his career in insurance in Tokyo at the Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Co. in 1983; worked for the Japanese Ministry of Labour from 1987 to 1989; and advised members of the government of Poland (the Minister of Finance and the President of the Insurance Supervisory Authority) from 1995-1998. He has also worked for the Secretariat for the Insurance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Mr Kawai is a native Japanese speaker and is also fluent in English, French and Spanish. In his spare time he runs marathons and his personal best (so far) is three hours and sixteen minutes.

Mamphela Ramphele

Mamphela Ramphele, a South African national, is the Executive Chair of Letsema Circle, a Cape Town-based specialist transformation advisory company. She is also a director of other major companies.

She is Chair of Convenors of the recent Dinokeng Scenarios project (sponsored by Nedcor/Old Mutual) that has energised the national debate on South Africa's future, the key message of which is that the future is created by citizen-leaders.

Dr Ramphele qualified as a medical doctor at the University of Natal in 1972. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town; a BCom degree in Administration from the University of South Africa; and diplomas in Tropical Health and Hygiene and Public Health from the University of Witwatersrand.

Appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1996, Dr Ramphele was the first black woman to hold that position at a South African university. She joined UCT as a research fellow in 1986, and was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor five years later. She is also the author of many important books and articles on critical socio-economic issues in South Africa.

As a Managing Director of the World Bank from 2000 to 2004, Dr Ramphele was responsible for managing the institution’s human development activities in the areas of education; health, nutrition and population; and social protection. She was also responsible for the World Bank Institute, which provides training and learning for both staff and clients. In addition, Dr Ramphele provided oversight and guidance to the World Bank Group's efforts in the areas of knowledge and information and communication technologies.

From 2004 to 2005 she served as Co-Chair on the Global Commission for International Migration (GCIM).

Dr Ramphele has also received many prestigious national and international awards, including honorary doctorates acknowledging her scholarship, her service to the community, and her leading role in raising development issues and spearheading projects for disadvantaged people throughout South Africa.

Enrique Ruelas

Dr Enrique Ruelas is the Secretary of the General Health Council of Mexico (a position similar to that of the Surgeon General in the United States) as well as a Member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Mexican Academy of Surgery, a Member of the Board of the Baxter Award on Health Systems Research in the USA, and President of the Latinamerican Society for Quality in Health Care.

His qualifications include an MD from La Salle University in Mexico City, an MPA from the Center for Economic Research and Education in Mexico, and a Master of Health Sciences in Health Administration from the University of Toronto.

Dr Ruelas helped oversee the modernisation of Mexico's health-care system using supply-chain techniques which radically improved service levels while at the same time made significant cost savings.

Prior to his current post he gained widespread entrepreneurial and academic experience and is an expert on health care quality and managing health-care systems. Previous posts include Acting Minister of Health of Mexico; Vice Minister of Health – Quality and Innovation, Ministry of Health of Mexico; President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua); Director of the Mexican Journal of Quality in Health Care; Member of the Advisory Board of the Avedis Donabedian Foundation, Spain; Founder President of the Mexican Society for Quality in Health Care; President of the Mexican Hospital Association; Chairman and CEO of QUALIMED; Director of Institutional Development of the Mexican Health Foundation; Program Director-Health for Latin America and the Caribbean, W. K. Kellogg Foundation; Dean of the National School of Public Health of Mexico, National Institute of Public Health; Associate Director for Health Systems Research, Center for Public Health Research; and Associate Dean of the School of Medicine of the Anahuac University, Mexico.

He has given more than 570 lectures on quality in health care and the management of health care systems in 16 countries across North, Central and South America, Europe and the East and has published more than 80 articles as well as 5 books on the topic.

Helen Zille

Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape, will give the Welcome Address at the ICA 2010 Welcome Reception on the evening of Sunday, 7 March. The event will be hosted by the Premier at her official residence, the historic Leeuwenhof estate in the Gardens neighbourhood of Cape Town.

Premier Zille is a former journalist, anti-apartheid activist and politician. She has worked in all three tiers of government: as the Western Cape province's education MEC, as a Member of Parliament, as Mayor of Cape Town and currently as the Premier of the Western Cape. Speaking English, Afrikaans and Xhosa, Premier Zille also reflects the multilingual nature of South Africa, and speaks German too.

Premier Zille's previous work as mayor led to her selection as World Mayor of the Year in 2008, from among a field of 820 international candidates. She was also chosen as Newsmaker of the Year 2006 by the National Press Club, and was a finalist for the South African Woman of the Year Award.