Advances in Time Series Analysis, Stochastic Control, and Risk: Closing Conference of the "Étoiles Montantes Project"

Mohamed Bel Baraka is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of high-level experience in the insurance industry. He currently serves as Deputy General Manager (Corporate) at AtlantaSanad Assurance, where he leads the company’s overall strategy, governance, and corporate performance.   A recognized expert in actuarial science, risk management, and strategic leadership, he actively contributes to advancing the profession as President of the Moroccan Actuarial Association (AMA) and Vice-President of the Arab Actuaries League. He holds a Statistical Economist Engineering degree from ENSAE Paris and a Master’s degree from Paris Dauphine University, and is a Qualified Actuary and member of the International Actuarial Association (IAA).   

Michel M. Dacorogna is a partner at Prime Re Solutions, advising financial institutions on actuarial and economic matters. He holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Geneva and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. His research career spans diverse fields, from solid-state physics to financial and insurance mathematics, with more than 95 publications in refereed scientific journals.

Previously, Michel served as Deputy Group CRO of SCOR (2009–2013), where he led the development of the company's internal model for over a decade, and later as Scientific Advisor to the Chairman (2013–2016). In 2009, he was named Insurance Risk Manager of the Year by Risk Magazine.

He lectures at several leading institutions, including ESSEC Business School (Paris), ETH Zurich, the University of Basel, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, and the University of Ljubljana. 

His book An Introduction to High-Frequency Finance remains a standard reference in the field. He also co-authored Where Is Science Leading Us? And What Can We Do to Steer It? with Lars Jaeger, reflecting his broader interest in the philosophy and history of science.

Fatima Zohra IRAQUI is a graduate engineer from the Mohammadia School of Engineers, certified in Artificial Intelligence by MIT Sloan School of Management and in governance by the Moroccan Institute of Directors. She is a leader specializing in organizational transformation and digital innovation. Her career is marked by leading structural programs of organizational and digital transformation across various sectors, including asset management, market infrastructures, higher education, and reinsurance. She has notably led projects such as redesigning operational models (Target Operating Models), process reengineering, IT system modernization, and digitalization of operations, with change management at the core of her approach. After holding several executive positions, particularly at CDG Capital and the International University of Rabat, where she served as Secretary-General, she is now a member of the Executive Committee at Atlantic Re. There, she drives organizational and digital transformation, as well as the integration of artificial intelligence into reinsurance operations. She advocates for a pragmatic approach to transformation, combining strategic vision, technological innovation, and measurable value creation.

Marie Kratz is a Full Professor at ESSEC Business School, Director of the CREAR Risk Research Center, and head of the ESSEC-ISUP Actuarial Track. She holds a PhD in Mathematics (Univ. Paris VI mainly conducted at the Center for Stochastic Processes at UNC Chapel Hill), followed by a postdoc at Cornell Univ. A Fellow of the Institut des Actuaires, her research focuses on probability, extreme value theory, and quantitative risk management applied to finance, insurance, and emerging risks, while she actively bridges academia and industry by leading international transdisciplinary research consortia.