Kiran Desai's Résumé

Kiran Desai, M. Comm, M.B.A., F.S.A., M.A.A.A., M.C.A. is the President of Swiss Am Financial Consultants, Inc. Swiss Am is a consultant to many large insurance companies in Europe, U.S.A.and the Far East. Kiran started his actuarial careeer after completing his M.B.A. from Columbia University in 1961.

Kiran was with Colonial Penn Group, Inc. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania since 1971, most recently as Senior Vice President and Corporate Actuary. Colonial Penn a billion dollar premier direct response company, provides personal line insurance (life, health, auto, homeowners) specially tailored to elderly persons.

As head of the Actuarial Department, at Colonial Penn, Kiran developed new product ideas for Life-Health operations which, in essence, were responsible for continued profit growth of the corporation. During his seven years in the Actuarial Department, pre-tax profits for Life-Health increased from $15 million to $63 million. He was personally responsible for the modification of the major Life product which accounted for most of the then profits in the Life line. Since the introduction of this product, the profits increased from $4.5 million to $12 million in four years. He was personally responsible for developing health insurance portfolio for AARP and developing sound alternatives for healthcare, especially for the elderly. In addition to the actuarial role, he had the responsibility for corporate strategy, new product development and financial planning.

Since 1981, in his capacity as a consultant to insurance companies for all phases of Direct Response marketing, Kiran has achieved unparallel success in improving marketing effectiveness and in increasing actuarial soundness of the client companies. With the help of Swiss Am's advice client companys' acquisition costs were reduced by up to two thirds. In many cases product features were revamped to preserve actuarial soundness. Year after year with Swiss Am's help, many client companies are generating marketing profits, which are profits in excess of normal insurance profits, of between one third to one half the marketing budget. Mr. Desai has also worked with major health care providers by reviewing their actuarial and marketing programs. Kiran has assisted the New Jersey Public Advocate's office in evaluating rate increases for regulated health care providers and helped the Blue Cross organization in addressing actuarial and marketing effectiveness.

For helping clients enter direct response marketing, Swiss Am has developed several software packages for financial services. Swiss Am provides a total umbrella of services to insurance companies that include development of complex data processing for product development, marketing, underwriting and actuarial functions.

Kiran is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Member of American Academy of Actuaries, Member of Conference of Consulting Actuaries, Member of International Actuarial Association, and Associate of Institute of Actuaries (London). Kiran is active in the Society of Actuaries direct respnse section. He was past Chairman of the council and editor of NewsDirect. He has contributed frequently as a panel member and guest speaker at the SOA and other meetings.