Meet the Team
The Polaris leadership team is comprised of highly experienced individuals with reputation for excellence and delivery. Our leadership team has a track record of building effective teams to deliver complex projects. We provide the programme leadership and quality assurance required to manage the delivery and output of the services we provide.
Roger Houlihan
Roger is the founding director of Polaris Actuaries and Consultants, and has more than 20 years experience working with and advising insurance companies across the world. He has a proven track record of successfully leading teams to deliver major finance, risk, actuarial and change programmes in the insurance sector.
Roger is a focused and solution oriented actuary with experience gained through corporate and consulting roles. He has an innovative mind-set and enjoys application of his experience and creativity to challenging projects.
Most recently Roger led a successful Internal Model development and application at Canada Life. Prior to this he developed the Solvency II Group Risk Function for Prudential at the group head office in London and their regional headquarters in Hong Kong, leading to a successful Internal Model approval in 2016.
Roger has strong stakeholder management skills with considerable experience engaging with senior executive and non-executive management and presenting at Board level. He is able to articulate complexity in a clear and straightforward to understand manner.
Luke Johnson
Luke is an actuary with 18 years experience working with and advising UK based insurers. He has consulted for 13 years specialising in leading actuarial change initiatives in finance transformation programmes.
Luke is currently the Actuarial Lead in the Finance Transition Programme for integration of the Standard Life business (£140bn) into Phoenix. Recently Luke successfully implemented a new end-to-end process to meet Solvency II working day timetable. In addition he led the methodology, design, build, implementation, training and validation of the Friends Life simulation aggregation model which has provided a a deep understanding of this key component of the internal model.
Thriving on new challenges, Luke has built his reputation by providing pragmatic solutions to complex problems for clients. Versatility ranging from managing large programmes, model and systems migration, methodology derivation and process development makes Luke stand out.
In addition to a solid understanding of technical areas, Luke communicates clearly at all levels providing assurance and understanding to the Leadership team and presenting at Board level.
James Sharpe
James is an actuary and statistician with more than 20 years experience working with and advising insurance companies across the UK and Europe. He has worked for 13 years as a consultant with a long track record or delivering technical and process solutions to complex actuarial challenges.
James has played a significant role in leading edge research with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and has produced a number of industry papers and presentations.
Most recently James led the credit risk team as part of a successful Internal Model development and application at Canada Life. This included extensive board and PRA level engagement.
James has also delivered consultancy projects with Aviva, Friends Life, LV=, Lloyds Banking Group and Zurich.
As well as strong technical background, James is also a good communicator able to produce clear and concise presentations and papers for board level communication.
