Richard Brown rejoins Eckler as managing principal

Richard Brown has rejoined Eckler, Canada’s largest independent actuarial consulting, as managing principal. He is based in the firm’s Toronto headquarters.

Brown succeeds Jill Wagman, who led the firm for the past 11 years. Wagman will continue to serve as chair of the board, as well as hold a full-time consulting role.

"It's been a profound honour to lead this firm of outstanding professionals," said Wagman. "I am incredibly proud of the work we did to define our purpose so that every single person has a strong sense of why we do what we do. I know that purpose will continue to be our guiding beacon under Richard's leadership."

Brown is a pension actuary with over 20 years of experience in risk management. He has deep expertise in asset-liability and capital market modelling, longevity analysis and research, data analytics, and pension risk transfer.

Brown rejoins Eckler from Club Vita, an independent longevity data analytics firm serving pension plans and their stakeholders, where he spent eight years as COO of the Canadian division. During his tenure, Brown developed Club Vita Canada from a startup to a market leader and led it through a consolidation of its Canadian, US, and UK businesses.

He previously spent two years at Eckler, where he was a principal. Before that, he spent nine years at Willis Towers Watson, where he was an investment consultant advising pension plan clients.

Brown has a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science from the University of Waterloo and is a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries. He is also a chartered financial analyst.

“Eckler has a long and successful history,” Brown said. “By leveraging our talented and passionate people to evolve our business, we can continue to thrive for the long term in a remarkably different environment than when Sam Eckler founded the firm.”

The consultancy was founded in 1927 and has grown to over 330 employees across six offices in Canada and international locations in Jamaica and Barbados. The firm provides consulting services in insurance, pensions and benefits, compensation, financial wellness, investment, and technology solutions.

Eckler expanded its financial wellness practice with the 2019 acquisition of Employee Financial Well-Being (EFW), an Oakville, ON–based training and education consultancy.