Tom Wildsmith Becomes President Of The American Academy Of Actuaries

WASHINGTON—Thomas F. Wildsmith IV, a health actuary who serves as senior public policy manager for Aetna, began his term as president of the American Academy of Actuaries on Nov. 12. He succeeds 2014-15 President Mary D. Miller.

Wildsmith accepted the presidential gavel from Miller earlier today during the Academy’s Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. “The Academy provides the standards and framework for professionalism for U.S. actuaries,” said Wildsmith. “But each and every member of the American Academy of Actuaries also has an individual responsibility. The Academy is unique because it is the national association that focuses exclusively on the U.S. profession and across all practice areas. The Academy is the voice of the U.S. profession to the nation, and the symbol and guardian of our commitment to serving the public.”

Wildsmith, who has more than 30 years of experience as an actuary, was elected by the Academy’s Board of Directors to be the professional association’s president-elect on Oct. 7, 2014. He served as the Academy’s Health Practice Council (HPC) vice president from 2010 to 2012; he is a member of the Academy’s Public Interest Committee and previously served as chairperson of the HPC’s Communications Committee and its Medicare Steering Committee. An Academy member since 1989, Wildsmith has performed critical work for subgroups on actuarial value, premium review, exchanges, risk sharing, and health care costs.

Wildsmith will be succeeded for the 2016-17 term by Robert Beuerlein, a consulting actuary based in The Villages, Fla., who started a term as the Academy’s president-elect today that runs through the 2016 Annual Meeting on Nov. 3.