Keynote speakers
Hannover 2026
Frank Chang
Frank started his career as a traditional actuary, and transitioned to non-traditional actuarial work when he joined Google as their first actuary in 2012. He joined Uber in 2014 and currently is a Vice President of Applied Science in Core Services. His team consists of actuaries and data scientists responsible for providing insights and analytical solutions that serve all of Uber’s users.
Frank holds a B.A. in Music and a Ph.D. in Mathematics both from UCSD. He has been involved with the Casualty Actuarial Society for decades, serving as President in 2024 and Chairperson in 2025. He now serves as the Chair of the International Actuarial Association’s AI Task Force.
Thomas Kuhnt
Thomas Kuhnt is Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at HDI Global SE, a leading global corporate and specialty insurer. He has held these roles since 2018, overseeing technology, digital transformation, and operations. He drives innovation by leveraging advanced analytics and AI to enable data-driven decision-making. His remit includes actuarial pricing, data analytics, and underwriting governance.
Before joining HDI Global SE, Thomas was a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he led the European Insurance Practice for P&C/Risk Management and Advanced Analytics. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Silvana Pesenti
Silvana Pesenti is an Associate Professor in Insurance Risk Management at the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto. She obtained her PhD in Actuarial Science and Insurance from Bayes Business School, London, UK, in December 2018. Silvana was named the 2022 Rising Star in Quant Finance by Risk.net for the paper Portfolio Optimisation within a Wasserstein Ball. She received the 2020 Peter Clark Best Paper Prize from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) and in 2019 the Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty Science Award of Excellence. She is on the editorial board of several leading journals including Annals of Actuarial Science, ASTIN bulletin, and SIAM Journal on Financial Mathematics.
