Rival American Academy of Actuaries Candidate Steps Up

Tom Bakos is trying to get onto the American Academy of Actuaries board of directors by organizing a proxy campaign.

Bakos, a Ridgway, Colo., consulting actuary is soliciting proxies from other AAA members in the hope of being elected to the academy’s board Oct. 26, at the academy’s annual meeting in Boston.

Bakos says he is hoping to collect the votes from members who do not plan to attend.

Earlier this month, the AAA nominating committee put forth the names of 4 actuaries for 4 vacancies on the group’s governing body. Bakos says his candidacy is not in opposition to those candidates but rather is intended to fill a board vacancy that will open up when board member Arthur Panighetti leaves the governing body to accept new duties as a vice president of the AAA.

On Tuesday, AAA officials sent members a letter calling the Bakos call for a proxy vote “an unprecedented event.”

“We believe that proxy voting can easily be abused without proper processes to support it,” according to the letter, which was signed by John Parks, AAA president, and Steve Lehmann, chair of the AAA nominating committee.

Attached to the letter was the officials’ own proxy form, which they urged members not attending the annual meeting to sign and return to Lehmann.

“Members are enthusiastically encouraged to support the slate of regulator directors recommended to you by the nominating committee, who engaged in an extensive process to present four of the most experienced and highly regarded actuaries in their fields: Mary D. Miller, Tom Wildsmith, Dave Neve, and Ron Gebhardtsbauer,” Parks and Lehmann write in their letter.

In addition to advancing himself as a candidate, Bakos has suggested that he might propose an amendment to the group’s bylaws to provide for direct elections of board members and other elected officers.