Joe Griffin is a Senior Consulting Actuary with Foster & Foster, Inc. Joe has 23 years of experience serving governmental retirement plans, including topics such as actuarial valuations, plan redesign studies, accounting under GASB standards, plan experience studies and assumption/method recommendations, actuarial audits, and forecast/budgeting. Joe has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Georgia State University with concentration in Actuarial Science. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA, and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Joe is a former president of the Atlanta Actuarial Club and is a frequent speaker at both national and regional conferences. Joe currently serves on the Education Committee for the Georgia Association of Public Pension Trustees and has been drafting model education sessions for the new education requirements in the State of Georgia. He most recently spoke at conferences for the Georgia Association of Public Pension Trustees (GAPPT), Georgia Government Finance Officers Association (GGFOA), Florida Government Finance Officers Association (FGFOA), Florida Public Pension Trustees Association Conference (FPPTA), the Louisiana Trustee Educational Council Investment Education Symposium, and the South East Public Employee Retirement Systems Forum.
Pete Strong is a Senior Consultant with Gabriel, Roeder, Smith & Company (GRS). He works in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida office, where he provides actuarial and consulting services for several public employee retirement systems throughout the state. He is responsible for the preparation and presentation of actuarial valuations, GASB accounting disclosures, experience studies, and projections.
Pete has more than 24 years of actuarial and benefits consulting experience, more than half of which has been with GRS. He has worked with both public sector and private sector pension systems over the course of his career. His pension plan experience includes significant involvement with defined benefit and hybrid plan designs, asset liability modeling studies, and deterministic and stochastic projection studies.
Pete is very interested in and dedicated to the long-term sustainability of public pension plans.
Eric J. Atwater is a Partner and co-leader of Aon’s Public Sector Retirement practice. In his role as practice leader, he is responsible for client servicing, development of innovative solutions, thought leadership and adherence to professional and overall quality assurance standards. Eric serves, or has served, as consulting actuary and/or account executive to a variety of public entities and specializes in funding and non-traditional solutions for public Pension and Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) plans.
Mr. Atwater graduated with honors from Georgia State University in 1998, where he received a BBA with a concentration in Actuarial Science. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary. He has also passed the first two levels of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) exam and is in the process of becoming a charter holder to further his expertise of Pension and OPEB plan assets.
He is a former board member for International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA) and has worked with Atlanta Public Schools to increase awareness of the actuarial profession. Mr. Atwater is a regular speaker at industry conferences and has been quoted in pension‑related articles in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and several local newspapers. He is also in the process of completing the requirements for the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) and is a Level III candidate June 2021.
He’s a youth basketball coach and routinely volunteers for a variety of organizations including 7 Bridges to Recovery. He and his team helped prepare, and deliver, over 300 lunches for the homeless.
Chad Little is an actuary with Freiman Little Actuaries (FLA). Mr. Little and his partner, Paula Freiman, started FLA in November 2006. Mr. Little has been involved with the Florida Public Pension Trustee Association for many years, and is currently a member of the FPPTA Advisory Board. Prior to starting Freiman Little Actuaries he was an actuarial consultant with Public Pension Professionals and The Segal Company, and has served funds throughout the southeast. Mr. Little has spoken at many conferences around the country and was an Adjunct Professor in the Actuarial Program at the University of Central Florida.
Mr. Little is located in Merritt Island, Florida. He is an Enrolled Actuary, an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, and a member of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. Mr. Little received a BS degree in Actuarial Science from Georgia State University. He also did graduate work in Actuarial Science at Georgia State University.