Sherry S. Chan

Chosen unanimously by New York City elected officials and union presidents in the Spring of 2015, Sherry Chan is the 5th Chief Actuary in the 100+ year history of New York City and one of the highest ranked Asian-American officials in the City’s administration. Highly respected as the "Key Guardian of City’s Fiscal Health" for the 4th largest US public retirement system, Ms. Chan is a visionary Chief Actuary with approximately 20 years’ progressive leadership in process improvement, relationship management, financial analysis, staff development, business strategy, and operations.

In her role, Ms. Chan provides technical expertise to the City’s five retirement systems and pension funds - school administrators, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public employees - with approximately 750,000 active and retired members and over $200 billion of assets. Ms. Chan certifies the $10 billion annual required pension contributions for these retirement systems and pension funds, ensuring accuracy, and oversees a City agency with a professional staff who has decades of experience in and out of City service.

Her accomplishments include calculating costs for the City and unions to negotiate improved disability benefits for uniformed employees (sanitation, correction, police and fire), testifying before City Council on accuracy of numbers and estimates, resulting in valuation accepted by the City and unions despite math versus politics dispute. In her role as a signing actuary for Other Post Employment Benefits, such as the City’s retiree healthcare plan, Ms. Chan spearheaded the release of new Governmental Accounting Standards Board statements that instituted major industry changes for these type of financial statement disclosures.

Ms. Chan previously served as the Chief Actuarial Officer for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and as Chief Actuary for the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, the two largest state pension systems in Ohio with assets of approximately $100 billion and $80 billion, respectively.

A fellow of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary with the Joint Board, a member of the American Academy of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and a conferee of an Executive MBA and Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and actuarial science from the Ohio State University, Ms. Chan regularly gives presentations at colleges, conferences, and on webinars. Ms. Chan is Chair of the American Academy of Actuaries’ Public Plans Committee and a member of The Ohio State University Math Department Advisory Board.

Pieces written by Ms. Chan on the City’s pensions, public pensions in general, and trending issues in the actuarial field, have been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Crain’s New York Business, the Chief Leader, and TEXPERS Pension Observer.

From local recognitions to international recognitions, Ms. Chan was selected as a 2019 Crain’s New York 40 under 40 and a 2017 City & State 40 under 40 Rising Star of New York City. In 2018, Ms. Chan received both the Community Hero Award from Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou and the Geoffrey Heywood Award from the International Association of Consulting Actuaries (IACA) at the International Actuaries Congress in Berlin, Germany. The Geoffrey Heywood Award, named after the founding Chairman of IACA, is given every two years to one young consulting actuary from across the globe who has provided significant services to the public and the actuarial profession.