Meet the speakers @ the Momentum Risk Summit 2015

Gain the insight, know-how and passion to grow your business in tough economic times by joining us at the Momentum Risk Summit 2015 that is taking place on 3 and 4 March 2015 at Sun City.

Avoid disappointment and book your seat today by visiting www.momentumrisksummit.co.za 

As the only summit of its kind in South Africa that is wholly dedicated to exploring the risks, challenges and trends in the risk insurance industry, the Momentum Risk Summit is arguably one of the most important events on the South African insurance industry calendar. The importance and credibility of the summit is underscored by the fact that members of the Financial Planning Institute will earn 7.5 CPD points by attending the event. 

Along with this, local and international speakers have been hand-picked to share thought-provoking content that is sure to contribute to the growth of attending financial advisers’ businesses in a sustainable manner. Take a look at our speaker-line:

Dr. Roelof Botha

Economist

Roelof is currently Joint Managing Director of GOPA Group SA, a multidisciplinary research company that specialises in development facilitation. He has been an economic adviser to PricewaterhouseCoopers for the past 23 years and is an experienced presenter and sought-after consultant. 

In 2005, he received the Sake-24/ABSA award for Economist of the Year, based on the accuracy of forecasts of key economic indicators. He is a regular commentator on topical macroeconomic issues (in the national and regional media) and has authored more than 100 articles, books and research publications. 

Roelof’s broad experience includes management accountant of a listed industrial company; financial editor of a daily newspaper; economic policy adviser to the Department of Finance; senior economics lecturer at the University of Pretoria and the University of Johannesburg and chief economist of the South African Federated Chamber of Industries. He remains involved with macroeconomic research and is a senior adjunct faculty member of the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). 

Brian Gibbon

Chief Underwriter, Africa Swiss Re Life and Health

Brian has been in the insurance industry for 34 years. He started at Momentum in 1999 as Head of Myriad Services where he gained extensive experience in all aspects of this portfolio and greatly contributed to refining this flagship product of Momentum. His invaluable efforts were noticed by Swiss Re Life, who invited Brian to join their team in 2014 in his current capacity of Chief Underwriter, Africa Life and Health. 

Brian serves on the Ombudsman Council and the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) Risk and Disability Committee and has shared his knowledge at numerous conferences, including the World Underwriting Conference in 2006. 

Prof. Sarah Harper

University of Oxford

Sarah is a Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield College in the United Kingdom. She also serves on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, which advises the Prime Minister on the scientific evidence for strategic policies and frameworks. 

Sarah has a background in anthropology and population studies and her early research focused on migration and the social implications of demographic change. Her current research on demographic change addresses the global and regional impact of falling fertility and increasing longevity, with a particular interest in Asia and Africa. Sarah was the first holder of the International Chair in Old Age Financial Security, at the University of Malaya (2009/10) and her research was recognised by the 2011 Royal Society for Public Health where she received the Arts and Health Research Award. 

Internationally, Sarah represents the U.K. on the European Science Academies’ Demographic Change in Europe Panel, serves on the Council of Advisors of Population Europe and on the Advisory Board of the World Demographic Association. Sarah is an International adviser on the University of Tokyo Global Leadership Initiative and represents Oxford on the Ageing and Demography Collaboration of International Association of Research Universities.

Chantell Ilbury

Scenario Planner

Chantell is an independent scenario strategist, facilitator and best-selling business author. She is also an accomplished speaker on scenarios and effective strategy in times of uncertainty. Chantell holds a BSc in Chemistry, a postgraduate Higher Diploma in Education, an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, and has studied Strategic Negotiation through Harvard Business School in Boston. 

During 2001, Chantell met Anglo American’s Clem Sunter and she shared her ideas on scenario planning with him. This lead to them writing several best-selling books that includes The Mind of a Fox - Scenario Planning in Action, and Games Foxes Play - Planning for Extraordinary Times. 

Currently, Chantell dedicates her time to managing strategic conversations at corporate level, nationally and internationally, as well as lecturing and hosting talks on strategy scenarios.

Derek Mills

Financial Adviser and Author

Derek was born in Birmingham in the United Kingdom in 1965. He grew up happily, until the age of 13, when his mother died: this plunged him into the world of a stutterer. After school and various menial jobs, Derek went into financial services as a trainee. Throughout his 20’s and 30’s, Derek had great financial challenges. By the end of 2003, in a moment of despair, Derek discovered a way to live his life differently. Over the next four years he turned his life and business around, made his first million and people began to ask him how he did it. 

Derek is the author of The 10 Second Philosophy® in which he explains the power of true-self and standards to achieve happiness and success. He has been in the financial services industry for over 27 years. For the last seven years, he has worked as a Senior Partner in the United Kingdom’s Premier Wealth Management Company. As a result of the changes, he went from completing only one-third of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) qualification level in 2003 to achieving Court of the Table and Top of the Table in his three year membership with MDRT.

Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen

General Manager: FPI Centre for Professional Development

Wessel graduated from the University of the Free State (UFS) after completing his B Proc and LLB degrees in 1995. He also completed an LL M (estate law) degree at the North West University in 1997 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Planning at UFS. He is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa. 

Wessel was employed as the Master of the High Court before he joined Absa Trust as Legal Consultant, specialising in estate planning. He returned to the University of the Free State in 2001 where he established and developed the Centre for Financial Planning Law (CFPL). The University of the Free State was the first higher education institution in South Africa to offer qualifications in financial planning. 

Over the years, Wessel received various awards including the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa’s Chairman Award in 2011 in recognition of his contribution to the financial planning profession. Also in 2011, he received an award from the International Financial Planning Standards Board in recognition of providing leadership and excellence in financial planning education. 

Neill Müller

Head of Myriad Product Development

Neill graduated from the University of Pretoria in 2001 with a BCom (Hons) in Actuarial Science and became a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 2005. He started his career in the healthcare environment where he mainly focused on pricing and the development of health insurance products along with modelling of solutions with the specific end-focus on integrated risk management. He continued his career at Absa where he was responsible for the design and implementation of profitability models for the different business units of Absa Financial Services and the Absa Group itself.

Neill joined Momentum in 2009 as the Head of Investo Product Development. His responsibilities included the deployment of new products and the management of the existing savings products. In 2011, Neill was appointed as Head of Myriad Product Development. Neill has excelled in this challenging environment and his past experience served him well in taking ownership of all new product development, pricing, reinsurance and on-going product management responsibilities. In addition, Neill also oversees the underwriting, research and development and technical marketing functions.

Dr. Adela Osman

Momentum Chief Medical Officer

Adela graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 2005 with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB). After completing her internship and community service, she worked as a Medical Officer in state hospitals for an extended period of time. Adela later joined a private general practice and focused mainly on family health. 

After some years in practice, Adela joined Momentum in 2011 and her areas of expertise include claims, medical marketing, underwriting, product development and consulting to the legal department on medical issues. Adela has since completed specialised training on disability medicine and impairment with the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners. 

During the past 2 years, she further expanded her studies with the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners and successfully completed Medico Legal Report Writing and Court Testimony training which equipped her to act as an independent medical examiner and scientific expert witness. Adela also completed an Advanced Case Studies training session, which assists her in analysing advanced case studies to draw specialised, scientific based conclusions.

Andy Preston

Sales Expert

Andy is a leading expert on sales and selling. Originally a professional buyer, he became not only the top salesperson in his company, but one of the top salespeople in his industry. Hence, he draws on his first-hand experience to help people increase sales volumes and guide them through obstacles associated with selling. This has resulted in him gaining a reputation as a global expert on sales training and the number one authority on the evolution of cold calling and new business. This explains why Andy is also a regular visiting lecturer at London Business School’s MBA programme. 

During the past 10 years, Andy has worked with over 60 000 people in more than 16 countries to successfully increase sales and build solid client relationships. With his unique ‘Stand-Out-Selling’ sales methodology and insight, he wows audiences across the world, time-after-time. His passion, motivational and practical advice are unrivalled by any other sales speaker. Andy has an impressive blue-chip client list and some of these include IBM, Rackspace, Nissan, Siemens, HSBC, McAfee and FedEx.

Mark van der Watt

Chief Executive Officer: Momentum Retail

Mark completed his BSc (Hons) cum laude at the University of Pretoria. After three years of teaching mathematics to high school students, Mark was appointed as a Data Integrity Clerk at Momentum in 1995. During 1999 he qualified as an actuary through the Institute of Actuaries in London. 

Over the last 19 years Mark has made valued contributions in various areas within Momentum including corporate actuarial, profit measurement, product development and pricing. Mark was also instrumental in developing and pricing the Myriad product range, launched in 2002. During January 2012, Mark took up his current role as Chief Executive Officer of Momentum Retail. He wants to make a difference in the lives of others by living a values-based life and has a passion for his family.

In his own words, his approach towards financial services is as follows: “Our industry is based on trust, and trust is impossible without relationships”.

Stephen van Niekerk

Head: Momentum Myriad

Stephen graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in 1998. He worked at a reinsurance company and spent three years at a start-up life insurance company. After qualifying as an actuary during 2002, he joined the Momentum Myriad team as a Product Development Actuary. 

In his previous role as Head of Myriad’s Product Development team, he was instrumental in the development and pricing of this new-generation risk product and his team introduced many firsts into the risk protection market. A highlight was the introduction of a new-generation income protection solution that among other things, included impairment and illness claims criteria to provide additional claim certainty. Stephen was appointed as Head of Myriad during July 2011 and under his leadership, Myriad is continuously crossing new frontiers.

Derek Watts

Master of Ceremonies

Derek is a multiple award-winning journalist who has graced our television screens for over two decades. He started his television career as an SABC sports reporter in 1985 and became a household name when he joined M-Net’s Carte Blanch team in 1988 as an anchor presenter. Over the past 25 years, in his capacity as investigative journalist, Derek has pretty much seen and experienced it all and won numerous awards along the way. 

To name a few, he was voted the best television presenter in South Africa from 2004 to 2007 as well as winning the SABC Environmental Journalist Award and the Star Tonight Best Actuality Reporter award. Born in Zimbabwe, Derek’s professionalism and excellence is a result from a hardy apprenticeship, including a stint as company commander in the Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) bush war and cadet reporting on the Rhodesia Herald. Frustration from the days of not being allowed to report on the war; the security situation; the economy; the government; the banned people and organisations instilled in him the passion for hard line investigative reporting.