Insurance Forward:
AI-Powered Transformation Roundtable

Sam Rolland is the Network Director for Sub-Saharan Africa at EICN. He is a trained economist specialising in understanding the complexities of the South African economy. Prior to joining the EICN, Sam spent time in both the public and private sector, first as an economist within the Economic Policy division of the National Treasury, and then as a consulting economist at Econometrix and Deloitte. During his time in the private sector, Sam specialised in analysing events and government policies to dilute these into constructing business strategies. Sam also spent time in Switzerland as an economist for airline industry body IATA. Sam holds a masters degree in economics from Stellenbosch University, and has studied further at the Institute for Social Studies in The Hague, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College in New York State.

Stepan has over 10 years of experience in helping Insurance companies to initiate and implement data monetization and process automation projects.
During the last 10 years in SAS, Stepan worked with 200+ Insurance companies in EU, Middle Asia, Middle East, EU, China, ASEAN and Australia. Moreover, he took part as Business Advisor in more than 40 digital transformation which have already earned 100+ USD million in revenue for Insurance companies.

During this career, Stepan has accumulated a lot of practical expertise about using AI, Machine Learning, Real-time Decisioning, Graph Analytics and other technologies to boost revenue in both General, Health and Life Insurance.

Business areas where Stepan can share his expertise include:

• Optimization of Underwriting & Pricing / Portfolio Management
• Insurance Fraud Detection / Prevention
• Cost & Profitability Management, New Products Roll out
• Customer Base Monetization topics / Analytical CRM / Insurance ecosystems
• Agent Management Automation / Optimization
• Automation of Medical Audit, Underwriting and Medical Aid Organization in Health Insurance

Rebone is a seasoned, transformative senior executive with over 20 years of senior management experience in blue-chip listed organisations across multiple geographic locations in South Africa and Europe.

Proficiencies and skilled in demonstrated execution for strategic sales management, strategy business development, industry thought leader, innovation and purpose-led digital transformation, stakeholder and customer management in oil and gas, energy, health for digital solutions and information technology. Excellent executive business acumen to interface with C-suite executives, senior government leadership and cross-functional teams, which has enabled businesses to thrive and driven strategic growth, impact and results-driven sales by accelerating digital transformation. She is currently the Insurance business lead at SAS South Africa.

Marius is a qualified actuary with 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry in South Africa and the rest of Africa, of which 13 were in executive roles. He has experience in strategy formulation, fintech/Insurtech systems and project implementations, turnarounds of under-performing businesses, digitization and data in financial services, cloud- and policy admin system migrations, digital marketing, life insurance product development, reinsurance, SAM & ORSA implementations, IFRS17 and enterprise risk management.

He served inter alia as Group CEO of MTN’s Insurtech business, aYo; Life Reinsurance Executive for Munich Reinsurance Co. of Africa Ltd; Managing Director for Standard General Insurance Co. Ltd. (and subsequently as CEO of King Price Life Insurance); and Head of Insurance & Savings for African Bank. He started his career at Old Mutual as a life insurance actuary specialising in actuarial valuations and financial reporting, employee benefits consulting, and cell captive management. He joined KPMG in April 2024 as Associate Director and was appointed Partner in October 2024.

Marius has served on the boards and audit- and risk sub-committees of some of the above entities in Mauritius, Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa. He has also served on the Banking Association of South Africa’s Credit Insurance Committee and on the technical credit insurance task team of the National Credit Regulator, contributing to the revisions of credit life insurance regulations in South Africa. He holds a Masters of Philosophy degree in Futures Studies, and B.Comm (Hons) and B.Comm in Actuarial Science from Stellenbosch University.

Marius published a book, Rediscovering Wisdom – The Forgotten Gift, in October 2023 and recorded an audio version of the book. He loves travelling in Africa and hosts training courses on the application of wisdom and sound judgement in decision-making processes. He is married and has two children. He also rates his wife’s sense of humour much better than his own.

Nashtheer Sankar, IT professional with over 20 years’ experience. He worked in the private and public sectors as a systems and data manager. Nash has good knowledge of cybersecurity, application development, database management, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Now the Head of IT at the SAICB, joining a leading team as they guide the organization into a Digital Modernization.