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Actuaries' role within the insurance industry is a longstanding and vital one.

As the insurance industry evolves and changes to meet new customer demographics, expectations, and priorities, actuaries have an important role to play. Their unique industry expertise and technical training place them in influential positions throughout the insurance industry, particularly in pricing and product development.

Montoux's Innovative Actuaries series shares the profiles, insights, and experiences of some of the industry's most innovative and forward-thinking actuaries and data scientists. Representing a broad range of backgrounds and domain expertise, these individuals push the boundaries on their traditional scope and empower their professions to be more collaborative and open-minded when addressing new challenges and risks.

Mark Farrell - Director/Actuary, ProActuary

Mark Farrell of ProActuary gives his take on what makes an innovative actuary along with some advice for those considering actuarial careers.

Thomas Holmes - Actuarial Data Scientist

"Ask questions when people tell you an idea isn’t a good fit. Learn why it's a bad idea, and in doing so, you'll understand more about the organization, your company, and the industry as a whole."

Bruce Friedland - Principal

"There's often a question that's behind the question that is asked out loud. What is the person’s concern? What are they worried about? Actuaries developing those capabilities combined with their technical skill will be extremely valuable."

Tim King - Insurance Industry Consultant

"You can help make the insurer more profitable, but there's also the human component to it; the broader impact that an actuary can have in society. Sure, it’s about making people's lives less painful at work by automating things, but also having a broader positive societal impact."

Peter Galvin - Consulting Actuary

"Actuaries’ analysis skills and rigorous approach can bring enormous value into other areas. Conversely, we are not skilled in certain topics, and we will not understand them through formal study. We can only gain that understanding through experience."

Daniel Sharpe - Actuarial Science and Risk Management Student

"An actuary is not one mold that you must fit into, it's a more fluid thing where you'll have actuaries who prefer to be technical and can create complex models, but also those on the other end of the spectrum who are interpreting the model’s results for a client."

Act. Octavio Rojas

"We have to be as capable as possible and not think that what we know as an actuary has to only be used in the actuarial field. We have to approach other projects, we have to approach other people, and we have to be able to help other people understand what we do and what we’re capable of doing."

Mary Pat Campbell - VP, Insurance Research at Conning

"You have to get out beyond the solutions that you know into territory where those known solutions may not work. You have to allow yourself at least small failures."

Evans Lesinko - Business Intelligence Lead in the Fintech space

"There is a lot of learning that goes on in the profession. You don’t stop after getting your credentials, you have to broaden your mind through the experiences you get within the organizations."

Mark Vermeule - Risk & Compliance Executive

"The most important thing is to keep an open mind and be appreciative of the qualities that the other party brings to the table that you can benefit from. Nobody can do everything, so you need that combination of skills."

Cailyn Canty - Senior Actuarial Associate, John Hancock

"A big part of innovation is thinking of something new, testing it out, and failing. In a case where something fails or doesn't go as planned, being able to adapt right away and think of the next step quickly is important."

Christine Hofbeck - Actuary, Author, Keynote Speaker

"Innovations that simply allow us to do our work better are critical. Whether the innovation is large or small in scope or scale, anything that helps us move forward as a profession is highly impactful."

Sam Wehner - Senior Quant, Praedicat

"I tend to be one that promotes humans; we're hired to be creative, we solve problems that require abstract thinking. Let's let the computers do the non creative, boring tasks."

Alison Saifer - President and Founder, Actuarial Management Strategies

"As we continue to excel at working with cross-functional teams, and remember to look outside our actuarial silos, we will continue to increase our value and visibility for those important and fun roles."

Julia Lessing - Director, Guardian Actuarial

"Successful innovation requires creativity, which often requires time and wider collaboration. When organizations can foster networking and creativity, innovation is more likely to follow."

Maciej Zabój - Actuarial Manager, KPMG Poland

"The most important impact that actuaries can have is collaboration and readiness to share their knowledge."

Nick Sheahon - VP LTC Inforce Strategy & Analytics, Genworth

"There’s been more and more of an emphasis over the years on actuaries understanding how to interpret data, understand data and have more of an expertise in data science."

Ailen Okharedia - Director of Actuarial Services, PwC

"I think the onus is on us as actuaries to rebrand ourselves a little bit and show that we are more than a “human calculator”. We bring a lot more to the table than our mathematical abilities."

Neha Agarwal - Director of Actuarial Services, iPipeline

"For any innovation, while ‘built to last’ is a popular mantra, ‘built to adapt’ is the way to go."

Vince Bodnar - Chief Actuary, Bain Capital Insurance

"I think certainly the software we’re using today is incredibly powerful. Having the right tools to do your job unleashes more innovation. Now you can spend less time doing programming and more time thinking about how to model with these tools."

Lewis Fogden - Actuary, Scottish Widows

"I view us as a hybrid profession, borrowing useful ideas from other disciplines. I think we’ll see more of this because there’s a lot of visible opportunity, particularly from data science, software development, and machine learning."

Rebecca Zhang - Head of Regional Partnerships, SCOR

"There are many people who don’t understand insurance; how much they need or what kinds of products they should buy, etc. In this customer education piece, actuaries can really play a role."

Jose Cruz da Angela - Associate Director of Pricing and Data, BGL

"Someone once told me “innovation that everyone agrees on, is not innovation at all”. To me, it’s when you’ve convinced your greatest critic that you’re on the right path."

Ewen Tweedie - Actuary, PwC UK

"Analyzing trends is part of being an actuary, but it’s one thing to see and acknowledge them and another to take them as opportunities to be innovative and shape what will happen."

Julia Romero - Lead for Actuarial Engineering and Advanced Modeling, Haven Life

"Making the product we offer matter more to the people it’s supposed to help makes innovation impactful. You should build something that matters to people, particularly in insurance, because what else are we here for?"

Klaas-Jan Stijnen - Founder and Chief Product Owner, Montoux

"I think the biggest opportunity for actuaries is what McKinsey calls a ‘translator role’ - which is the person that has the subject matter expertise but also understands data science and brings the two together."

David Hopewell - Senior Consultant, Milliman

"For some really motivated and innovative actuaries, they won’t be able to grow and evolve in roles within incumbent companies, and so they will leave for roles and companies where they can."

Simon Dai - Partner, Deloitte Hong Kong

"My advice would be, don’t look at the world retrospectively. Don’t think about what happened in the last ten years, think about what will happen in the next ten."

Liam Monaghan - Chief Actuary, Ladder Life

"Asking ‘why’ five times is a very interesting way to approach a problem, and by the fifth you’ve gotten to the kernel of truth that allows you to expand your thinking."

Caleb Tarzwell - Manager, Actuarial Services and Risk Modeling at PwC

"I think actuaries need to ensure we have something that gives us insights, is usable in our assumptions, and improves our customer understanding."

Andy Gordon - VP and Head of Life Insurance, Annuity, and Underwriting Solutions, Guardian Life

"Data and ethics is a key issue where actuaries can be front and center. They have the training, the education, the experience, and the motivation to take on some of our hardest questions."

Interested in seeing more? Join the Innovative Actuaries Community on LinkedIn!