Letters: Icki Iqbal

I should have chosen my words more carefully [regarding those who voted against the election of Andrew Smith]. Misguided is more appropriate than small-minded.

Andrew is probably the foremost actuary of his generation. If he can solve a new actuarial problem just as well or better than an FIA (or FFA), what message does that send to the Pensions Regulator or the FSA? That you need not be an FIA (or FFA) to solve an actuarial problem. Once we ride that greasy pole all the talk of merging the Institute and the Faculty is a pointless exercise.

Andrew is confrontational but he had the difficult task of dealing with a profession that was sleepwalking. Anyway, weren’t Sidney Benjamin and Wilfred Perks confrontational? They were of course the two greatest actuaries not to be made president, so maybe we do not like their kind.

Icki Iqbal
9 June 2008