The team

Noor Rajah

Principal and signing actuary

FSA, EA, CFA, FCA, MAAA

More than 30 years advising public and private plan sponsors on the design, funding and administration of pension, retiree medical and retirement plans. Previously a senior manager at Deloitte, where he audited more than 100 public sector pension and retiree medical plans, and before that at Towers Perrin and Hewitt Associates. Has led more than 300 U.S. and international M&A benefits diligence reviews for private equity firms and strategic buyers, and advises employers on multiemployer withdrawal liability. Former Interim Dean of Columbia University's School of Professional Studies, where he directed the actuarial science program, and former Clinical Professor at Georgia State University. Degrees in applied mathematics and actuarial science from Université Paris Dauphine and the University of Kent.

Gursh Jhuty

Managing Director and Senior Actuary

FSA, EA, CFA, PMP, MAAA

Gursh Jhuty is a trusted advisor to CEOs, CFOs and heads of HR on retirement plan strategy: what to promise, what it costs, how to fund it and how to explain the decision to a board. He has more than 27 years of consulting experience, including 26 years at Deloitte Consulting, where he led the special projects that fall outside the annual valuation cycle: plan design and redesign, compliance and nondiscrimination testing, and plan mergers and terminations.

At Optimizing Foundations his practice covers defined benefit, cash balance and retiree medical plan strategy, pension risk transfer and plan termination, GASB and ASC 715 reporting, asset-liability modeling and total rewards analysis. He holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

Lina Xu

Senior Manager

Ph.D., FSA

More than 30 years across actuarial education and the insurance industry. Spent 13 years leading Columbia University's M.S. in Actuarial Science program, most recently as Deputy Director and Senior Director of Career Services, and taught Predictive Modeling in Finance and Insurance; recipient of the 2020 Society of Actuaries Presidential Award. Earlier, 16 years in insurance valuation, pricing, financial modeling, experience studies and annuity systems, including work at Guggenheim Life and Annuity and Athene Annuity. Independent Director of the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries Retirement Policy and Design Evaluation Committee. Ph.D. in Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences and M.S. in Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Iowa.

Taylor Packard

Actuarial Analyst

Data reconciliation, benefit calculations and compliance reporting across the firm's defined benefit engagements. With the firm since 2019, reconciling participant data across plan, payroll and recordkeeper sources for plans with more than 2,000 participants, calculating benefits under plan provisions, and preparing Form 5500 filings and audit-ready documentation for more than 20 plans. Builds data validation and reporting workflows in Excel, SQL and Python. Bachelor of Science, Georgia State University.

Zhengao Lou

Quantitative Analyst

Modeling, data analysis and valuation support across the firm's pension, OPEB and plan technology work. Reconciles participant data, builds and tests valuation models, and prepares results and documentation for client deliverables. Develops data validation and reporting workflows in Excel, SQL and Python. Master of Science in Actuarial Science, Columbia University.

Jiaqi Huang

Actuarial Intern

Supports the firm's valuation and plan technology work, including application deployment, testing and data preparation for client deliverables. Master of Science in Actuarial Science, Columbia University.