Background

Bryan Joseph is an actuary who joined Coopers and Lybrand in 1991, having started his career at Legal and General. He became the first Black partner in the firm in 1996 and during his time at Coopers and Lybrand, and then PwC, was instrumental in building up the actuarial practice both in the UK and globally. In addition to leading the UK and global Actuarial Practices, Bryan was also our Global Chief Actuary. It was under his leadership that PwC became the first major actuarial practice to establish a practice in the Middle East, when a team was set up in PwC Lebanon. 

Following Bryan’s retirement from PwC in 2015 he founded his own consultancy specialising in insurance and reinsurance, as well as taking on a number of non-executive director roles. In 2022 he reconnected with the firm, when he identified that Embankment Place was an ideal venue for a team of dancers preparing to join the Caribbean Carnival section of the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant - a request that the firm was only too happy to meet.

While Bryan was the first Black Coopers and Lybrand partner, it is worth noting that the first known Black accountant in the UK spent time at Price Waterhouse in the early 1960s. Lancelot Reynolds came to the UK from Jamaica in 1956 and completed his ICAEW training with a small family run firm before joining Price Waterhouse on qualification.