Gaurav Upadhya

Gaurav Upadhya is the Global Chief Actuary and Chief Risk Officer at Foresters Financial, a nearly 150 year old fraternal Canadian life insurance company serving over 2.5 million members and certificate holders in Canada, US and UK. He is also a Board Director at Amex Bank of Canada and at Canadian Club Toronto, Chair of the Advisory Committee of Ascend Canada and a member of the Advisory Board for the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.

He has broad experience in the financial services sector including a succession of leadership positions with Manulife John Hancock, including Senior Vice President, Product and Insurance Risk Management, and Vice President, U.S. Risk and Capital Management.

He is a Fellow in the Society of Actuaries (FSA), Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (FCIA), Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA), Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA) and a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder. Gaurav has a Master of Mathematics (Actuarial Science) from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University.

Gaurav was born in India where he contracted polio when three years old and has since walked with crutches and leg braces. He immigrated to Canada at the age of 12 after living in Africa and UK for some years.