The Institute of Actuaries of Australia has honoured Macquarie Graduate Darren Wickham with the award of Actuary of the Year 2008.The announcement was made by the President of the Institute, Greg Martin, at a Conference bringing together actuarial educators from around Australia to mark 40 years of actuarial education at Macquarie University.
Greg said the award was made to Darren Wickham in recognition of his dedication to the profession, his contribution to the development of debate and ideas in the fields of superannuation and retirement incomes, and his commitment to excellence.
“Darren exemplifies qualities most highly regarded by the actuarial profession. In particular, his strong social conscience, his ability to identify and address important social equity issues and his ongoing commitment to developing ideas and solutions in the area of age pensions and retirement savings.”
“Darren has been a consistent contributor to the profession over many years. He has written a number of thoughtful and provocative papers, challenging the way that we think about retirement savings and pension reform”, Greg said. “Darren’s paper “It’s time to abolish retirement…. “, has generated significant debate and discussion, across a range of media, about the future of retirement. Barry Dunstan of the Australian Financial Review, for example, described Darren as “an actuary with a revolutionary idea.” Darren won the Institute’s Melville Biennial Convention Prize at our 2007 Convention for that paper.”
Actuary of the Year is awarded by the Institute Council to a member who has brought significant credit to the actuarial profession and who has made a key contribution to business or the community.*
