Developments in Pension Design and Investment Modelling 2025
Andros, September 10-11, 2025
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his is the second edition of the workshop ‘Developments in Pension Design and Investment Modelling’, organized by Michalis Anthropelos (University of Piraeus) and Steven Vanduffel (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).
The workshop aims to highlight recent developments in the field of pension fund design, with a particular emphasis on related investment strategies from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
While it primarily targets an academic audience, participation from industry professionals—including asset managers, actuaries, and risk professionals—is highly encouraged. To stimulate interaction and discussion, we are limiting attendance to a maximum of twenty participants. This will ensure ample opportunities for engagement beyond the scheduled presentations.
The first edition took place in Piraeus on Sept 2024 and details are available here.
Venue
September 10-11
Aneroussa Beach Hotel
Andros, Greece
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Aneroussa is a beautiful hotel in Andros located between two dreamy sandy beaches with crystal clear waters, Delavogia and Ag. Marina. Built, owned, and run by three architects, with the help of an experienced and friendly staff, Aneroussa Hotel Andros opened its doors in 1985 and since then it has been offering impeccable services to its guests.
Invited Speakers
Jennifer Alonso-Garcia
Université libre de Bruxelles
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Jennifer Alonso García joined the Department of Mathematics as a (tenured) Professor of Actuarial Science in October 2019. Besides, she is an Associate Investigator at CEPAR, Netspar Fellow and member of the PBSS board.
Previously she was a (tenure-track) Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance (EEF) at the University of Groningen and Senior Research Associate at CEPAR. She completed her studies in mathematics in Spain and Germany, and received her PhD in Actuarial Science from the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium in 2015. She is a IA|BE Qualified Actuary of the Belgian Institute of Actuaries. She has also worked in the industry as a Risk advisor in the area or Solvency II and MCEV.
John Armstrong
King's college London
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John has extensive industry experience in financial computing. He co-founded Yolus, developed their industry leading risk management system and was an Executive Director in Operations Technology at Goldman Sachs. Before working in finance John was a Lecturer at Trinity College Oxford. He completed a doctorate in differential geometry at Wadham College, Oxford, under the supervision of Simon Salamon following a BA in mathematics, also at Wadham. John was promoted to Senior Lecturer in September 2017 at King’s.
Carole Bernard
Grenoble Ecole de Management
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Professor of Finance.
Carole Bernard was with the Statistics and Actuarial Science department at the University of Waterloo from September 2006 to December 2014.
Carole graduated from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan ( France). She obtained her Ph.D. in Finance from ISFA (Institute of Financial and Actuarial Sciences) in Lyon (France) in 2005 on the subject of “Valuation of Guarantees in Insurance and in Finance using the Option Theory”.
Kris Boudt
UGent
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Kris Boudt is professor of finance and econometrics at Ghent University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is an instructor at DataCamp and cofounder of Sentometrics.
Cédric Bruyninckx
Loyens & Loeff
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Cédric advises and supports employers, pension funds and insurance companies in both the private and public sector on statutory and occupational pensions. He specialises in the social, tax and prudential regulations regarding occupational pensions applicable to employers, insurance companies and pension funds.
Cédric has gained a lot of experience by working for both company and industry-wide pension funds, providing legal advice as well as services in corporate housekeeping and compliance. He also represents employers, insurance companies and pension funds in court disputes regarding pensions and insured benefits.
Cédric regularly speaks at seminars and gives training on occupational pensions. He is a lecturer at the Belgian Pension Academy organised by PensioPlus, the Belgian association of pension funds.
Pierre Devolder
UCLouvain
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Pierre Devolder is professor of mathematical finance and actuarial science at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) (Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Science, ISBA/LIDAM). He has a PhD in mathematics from the University of Brussels. He is also actuary and academic member of the Belgian Institute of actuaries (IABE). His main research activities are focused on stochastic finance, life insurance and pension theory. He has published 6 books mainly on pension and finance and a lot of papers in various actuarial journals. He gives regular courses at the universities of Brussels and Rabat. He has been member of the official Belgian “Conseil Académique des Pensions” and is founding partner and chairman of the board of REACFIN (actuarial consulting company ).
Laurence Kotlikoff
Boston University
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Laurence Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University, president of Economic Security Planning, and a New York Times best-selling author. His columns, articles, and books cover personal finance, generational policy, climate policy, inequality, tax reform, Social Security, banking, robotization, growth, and much more.
Torsten Kleinow
University of Amsterdam
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His research focuses on the modelling of human mortality and the impact of increasing life expectancy on society. He is particularly interested in stochastic models that capture the influence of the socio-economic environment and lifestyle factors on a population’s mortality rate. Such models can then be applied to quantify the longevity gap between different socio-economic groups. This information is also used to investigate the effect of an aging population on public pension systems.
Kostas Nikolaou
Prudential B. Marghios and Partners
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Kostas Nikolaou is an Insurance and Pensions Consultant professional. He is Managing Director of Prudential B. Marghios and Partners, a greek actuarial and consultant firm.
Kostas works closely with occupational pension funds, social security funds and insurance companies. Apart from actuarial and risk functions, Kostas its firm are specialized in managing the whole universe of a pension fund (administration, tax, registry, IT, etc).
Holds a BSc in Marketing, a Master in Business Administration (MBA), both from Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) and a Master in Actuarial Science and Risk Management from University of Piraeus. Also, holds a Trustee Certification from the Pensions Regulator UK, Certifications for all types of Insurance Mediation from Bank of Greece and Certification for Asset Management from Hellenic Capital Market Commission.
Member of Several Investment and Risk Management Committees.
Artemis Panagiotopoulou
EDEKT Asset Management
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Artemis Panagiotopoulou has 20 years of experience in the investment industry, with focus on strategic asset management and investment policy issues, while since 2014 she holds the role of Chief Executive Officer of EDEKT S.A., a leading fiduciary investment manager in Greece offering public pension funds an extensive array of services. Her main responsibilities include the design and implementation of investment policies and portfolio structures, exploring and assessing new investment ideas, as well as educating plan sponsors and board members on all areas concerning fiduciary management. Artemis Panagiotopoulou has a MSc in Banking and Finance from the University of Piraeus, and also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Maritime Economics, also from the University of Piraeus in Greece.
Tom Pohlschmidt
Ulm University
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Since 2024, Tom Pohlschmidt has been pursuing his PhD at Ulm University, where he researches sustainable finance and optimal capital structure under the supervision of Professor An Chen. His work builds directly on the foundation of his MSc in Mathematics and Economics, which he specialized in Actuarial Science, and his professional experience in the insurance industry.
George Symeonidis
Hellenic Actuarial Authority
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Dr. George Symeonidis is a fully qualified Actuary and a Doctor in Economics of Insurance. He serves as the Vice-Chair & President-Elect of the International Association of Consulting Actuaries (IACA). With nearly two decades of experience in the insurance industry and regulatory authorities, George has honed his expertise at the intersection of technical and managerial skills. He shares his knowledge with future actuaries through university lectures, focusing on risk management, pension economics, and public finance.
Panagiotis Tsakloglou
Athens University of Economics and Business
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Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. His research focuses on questions of inequality, poverty, social exclusion, returns to education and social policy (especially, the redistributive role of the state). He has published over ninety articles in scholarly journals (among them in Quarterly Journal of Economics, Economic Journal, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Review of Income and Wealth, Economics of Education Review and Journal of European Social Policy) and contributions to collective volumes, participated in a large number of conferences and workshops and has been a partner in over fifty international and national research and consultancy projects. He is Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn) and Senior Research Fellow of the Hellenic Observatory (LSE, London), as well as member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Economic Inequality and Politica Economica – Journal of Economic Policy. During the period 2012-2014 he was Chairman of the Greek Government’s Council of Economic Advisers and member of the EU Economic and Financial Committee (EFC) and Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) as well as alternate member of Ecofin and Eurogroup. He has also been Social Policy advisor to Prime Ministers G. Papandreou (2010-2011) and L. Papademos (2011-2012) and a member of the EU Economic Policy Committee (EPC, 2010-2011). Further, he was member of the Greek Government’s Council of Advisors on Employment and Social Policy (2001-2002), National Council for Research and Technology (2001-2005) Council of Economic Advisors (2002-2004 and 2009-2012) and member of the Independent Authority for the Evaluation of Tertiary Education (2006-2009).
Ann Verlinden
Pensioplus
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As an actuary, Ann Verlinden has been very engaged with pension funds since the beginning of her career. Enriched with the experiences of a consultant in pension fund management and employee benefits, Ann joins PensioPlus as a senior advisor in 2012. She distinguishes herself within both national and European working groups, amongst which the national commission for supplementary pensions, the Institute for Actuaries in Belgium, PensionsEurope and AEIP. As a Secretary General, Ann takes the responsibility for the sector’s lobbying activities at national and European level for the set up and coordination of working groups, the organisation of training and numerous activities, amongst which the annual Financial Seminar. Within PensioPlus, Ann takes the lead in files such as IORP II, stress tests, the pension tracking service, and many others.
Organizers
Michail Anthropelos
Since June 2023, he has been serving as an Associate Professor in Financial Mathematics at the Department of Banking and Financial Management, University of Piraeus. He has a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master from Columbia University and a Bachelor from the University of Piraeus. In the past, he had served as visiting scholar at the LSE and a visiting professor at Boston University.
His research interests lie in the field of Mathematical Finance and more precisely, problems related to optimal and sub-optimal risk-sharing, equilibria in non-competitive financial markets and contingent-claim pricing under price impact.
Steven Vanduffel
Steven Vanduffel is a professor in Finance, Insurance and Risk Management at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) – Solvay Business School. By training he has MSc degrees in mathematics and actuarial sciences from the KULeuven and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam (2005).
His research topics are in the field of insurance and financial mathematics/economics with a current emphasis on designing and implementing real-world pension solutions, risk assessment under uncertainty, estimation of option implied dependence with applications, and the optimal design of insurance portfolios.
David Ardia
David Ardia is an IVADO professor in the Department of Decision Sciences at HEC Montréal. Trained in quantitative methods for finance, he has a keen interest in ML/NLP methods for asset allocation, risk management, and economic forecasting. In 2018, the Swiss Risk Association awarded him “Swiss risk manager of the year,” and he won the teaching award in 2022 and research award in 2024 at the associate level at HEC Montréal.
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