Edward H. Friend, FSA, President and CEO

Years of Experience: 47

Education

·         Graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a major in Mathematics

·         Elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, the honorary scientific society

Professional Certification and Credentials

·         Fellow, Society of Actuaries

·         Enrolled Actuary under ERISA, holding Enrollment Number 14

·         Fellow, Conference of Actuaries

·         Member, American Academy of Actuaries

·         Associate, Institute of Actuaries in Great Britain

·         Serves as member of the California Actuarial Advisory Panel

·         Has served as: President, Conference of Actuaries in Public Practice; Vice-President, American Academy of Actuaries; Member, Board of Governors of the Society of Actuaries; and contributing author/founding member, International Association of Consulting Actuaries

Special Areas of Expertise

·         Leadership

o        Founded Edward H. Friend & Company in 1961 and served as President until July 1983, when the 50-employee firm was sold to Johnson & Higgins which later created a consulting subsidiary, Foster Higgins

o        At the time of sale, Ed Friend had been directing that segment of Edward H. Friend & Company which serviced more than 100 public sector systems and occasionally serviced the U.S. Government, including the Office of Personnel Management, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and other agencies.  Mr. Friend supervised these actuarial services and drafted most of the recurring and special reports

o        From 1983 through 1989, Mr. Friend served as National Director of Public Sector Services and National Public Sector Practice Leader with Foster Higgins

o        In December 1989, Mr. Friend left Foster Higgins to found on January 2, 1990 the first national employee benefits consulting firm dedicated to the public sector -‑ EFI Actuaries

 


·         Writings and Speaking Engagements

o        Frequent author, contributing pioneering materials to the field of public sector pension funding as well as general government benefit areas; example: article on Balancing Public Budgets: Are Public Pension Funds in Jeopardy? in California Public Retirement Journal

o        For the 100th anniversary of the actuarial profession, authored a highly regarded treatise: Weaving Solutions to National Problems on an Actuarial Loom

o        Sponsored by Labor Management Relations Service (LMRS) of the United States Conference of Mayors and in cooperation with the International City Management Association (ICMA), produced annual national surveys of Employee Benefits for Full Term Personnel of U.S. Municipalities

o        Commissioned by the National Education Association to prepare a 95-page treatise on How to Understand an Actuarial Valuation

o        Speaker before the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, Government Finance Officers Association, Florida League of Cities, and many similar organizations

o        Organized and chaired 15 national conferences, attracting prominent speakers and attendees from all over the nation, including State legislators.  Conferees addressed public pension and health care issues of the day.  Themes included Public Pensions in an Era of Fiscal Distress and Public Retiree Health Care and COLA Issues. Another, with the theme Learn from Past Wrong Turns, covered leading edge issues of current concern to trustees of public retirement systems

Relevant Professional Experience

·         State and City of New York – Re-design and structural implementation of New York State and New York City pension plans.

·         Massachusetts Retirement System - Actuarial valuation team leader; educational seminars

·         Georgia Employees Retirement System - Comprehensive audit review

·         City of Philadelphia ‑ Actuarial valuation and restructuring of the City's pension plan

·         Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation - Design of initial analytic procedure for pricing benefit obligations flowing from inadequately financed pension systems of bankrupt companies

·         Northern Mariana Islands - Services as actuary for the NMI retirement system

·         U.S. Small Business Administration - Pricing of a lease guarantee program to determine premium payable by small companies to ensure their leases so that landlords would provide rental space in prime locations to new and high-risk enterprises

·         Overview of Foster Higgins public sector employee benefit activities (300 public sector clients with gross billings of approximately $4 million)

·         Upon founding EFI Actuaries, Consulting Actuary to CalPERS (succeeded by Robert T. McCrory)

·         Co-designer of CASSY (Patented Asset Allocation System)

·         Initial principal actuary for over 50 municipal retirement systems.