This special conference in honour of David Wilkie, a.k.a. the WilkieFest, encompassing the areas of economic scenario generation, mortality and critical illness modelling, survival analysis, and income protection insurance, took place in the historical setting of the Guildhall in York. The conference was hosted by the School for Business and Society, University of York.

More than a dozen high-ranking speakers as well as young professionals came to honour David Wilkie and present the latest advancements in their field. Invited speakers included Andrew Cairns (Heriot-Watt University), Mary Hardy (University of Waterloo), Andrew Smith (University College Dublin), Hande Love (Hymans Robertson), Kalpana Shah (IFoA President), Alasdair Thompson (Moody’s), Stuart McDonald, and Vivienne Maclure (CMI). Find the full programme here.

The conference will be accompanied by a special issue of the Annals of Actuarial Science.

Thank you to the sponsors:

David Wilkie
David Wilkie is one of the world’s foremost actuaries with a distinguished career in practice and research spanning several decades. He worked for a number of major insurance companies, including Scottish Widows’, Swiss Re and Standard Life, before joining R. Watsons, the actuarial consultancy. Since the 1980s he has held a post as visiting professor at Heriot-Watt University. David has played a pivotal role in constructing mortality tables and developing models for income protection insurance and the spread of AIDS. He is best known for the ‚Wilkie model,‘ a stochastic investment model for long-term actuarial applications. He has been actively involved in numerous professional bodies, international actuarial conferences, and received prestigious awards, including gold medals from the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries and the appointment of CBE.