Victoria is a Partner at LCP and led the actuarial team of 80 people in Winchester for 5 years. We discuss Victoria’s journey to date including joining LCP as a Graduate, her experience with the exams, becoming a people manager, asking for help and advice, saying yes to new opportunities, and her career progression through each level to becoming a Partner. We also discuss her experience of hosting the podcast ‘Beyond Curious with LCP’ and her role as a Trustee for the UK Antarctic Heritage...

Joe is a Capital Actuary at Beazley. He is responsible for helping the Capital Team with updating and maintaining the internal model, specifically testing the model to ensure its operating effectively and compliant with regulations such as Solvency II.   We discuss Joe’s entry into the actuarial profession, his experience with the exams and helping others with their study, his reasons for moving from pensions consulting into General Insurance, how he prepared himself for the change, choosing...

Helena is an Actuary, People Development Specialist and Executive Coach at WTW. She moved from the traditional actuarial path into people development a number of years ago, and now works to understand the learning & development needs of a range of colleagues from junior actuarial trainees through to very experienced client facing consultants, designing and delivering L&D solutions. We discuss Helena’s entry into the actuarial profession, becoming a qualified actuary, working in small...

Matt is an Investment Consultant working for Isio, and specialises in LDI. We explore Matt’s route into the actuarial profession after studying Maths and Cyber Security, gaining experience via a fully remote internship, choosing a career in consulting, balancing work with study and his other interests, presenting at his first client meeting, transferring from pensions to investment consulting and specialising in Liability-Driven Investment. It was lovely to speak with someone at a relatively...

Paul is the UK Head of Pensions Consulting & Partner at EY. Paul leads a team of Actuaries, Investment professionals, data scientists and scheme excellence & governance experts. We explore Paul’s career journey to date, including how he entered the profession, his experience with the actuarial exams, Paul’s approach to career progression, working for different consultancies, becoming an MD of an investment Bank and becoming a ‘Big 4’ Partner. All after accepting his first actuarial...

Mayowa is a Pricing Actuary at Just Group, specialising in Bulk Annuities. We explore his career journey to date, from when he first discovered the actuarial profession existed, becoming a pensions actuary after completing a chemical engineering degree, and working for two pensions consultancies before moving into insurance. We discuss finding a balance between technical and client facing work, Mayowa’s career motivations, what being an actuary means to him, how he has found the move to an...

Richard is an experienced Actuary & Director of Enterprise Risk Management for Europe at Canada Life. After getting a feel for his career journey to date, we explore his experience of working in different countries, his passion for helping people to think differently, striving to help the global development of the actuarial profession via volunteering for the IFoA and the International Actuarial Association, and Richard's role as a coach.   I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, his...

Jyotsna is a ALM Actuary - currently working across investments and matching adjustment projects for a large Life Insurance company. We learn how Jyotsna decided to become an actuary, beginning her journey in Bulk Annuity Pricing, her experience of relocating from India to the UK, transitioning to working on the asset side, working in insurance consulting, and developing her investment specialism & love for asset liability management. We also discuss her role as President of the Indian...

Catherine is a Scheme Actuary at First Actuarial and has 17 years' experience in the industry. We discuss Catherine's journey as an actuary to date, from how she first entered the profession after achieving a PhD, her experience with the exams, attending her first client meetings, her career motivations, the process of becoming a Scheme Actuary and moving from a 'big 4' type company into her current role at First Actuarial. I hope you enjoy the conversation! Please connect with Catherine...

Emma is a Senior Consultant at Aon and has recently celebrated her 15 years work anniversary! She sits in the corporate consulting team, advising final salary schemes, some DC schemes and also provides wider pensions advice. We explore Emma’s journey to date, including how she first became an actuary, her experience with the exams, moving from trustee to corporate consulting, becoming a people manager, taking on a project consultancy role after returning from maternity leave, and developing...

Jen worked a Life Insurance Actuary for almost 18 years, and today is a Coach for her own business – Soulfire Coaching. Coaching has been mentioned a number of times by my previous guests as an invaluable way to help get the most out of their actuarial careers, so I was absolutely delighted to spend some time with someone who has been both an Actuary and a Coach! After getting a feel for how and why Jen became an actuary and her career path, we dive into her transition to setting up a...

In this special episode of Actuarial People, I'm delighted to be joined by Erik Snaathorst! Erik is an Early Careers Manager at Barnett Waddingham, where he is responsible for recruiting for new graduates, internships, apprentices and work experience opportunities across the business. Erik shares his amazing experience on all things relating to getting your first step on the actuarial career ladder. We discuss the importance of applying early to internship and graduate opportunities, the...

This week I’m delighted to be joined by James Nunn. James is a qualified actuary, and an Actuarial Tutor for ActEd. He has over 20 years of actuarial experience across both Life Insurance and Pensions Consulting. We discuss everything from James’ love of maths (and running!), to starting his first actuarial role, working for consultancies of different shapes and sizes, transitioning from pensions into life insurance after qualifying, some of the differences and similarities between life &...

This week on Actuarial People I had the pleasure of speaking with Lloyd Richards! Lloyd is a Director & Head of Actuarial at Crowe UK, and specialises in risk & sustainability consulting. His client base spans across Insurance, Asset Management and other sectors, and he helps to develop and embed their risk management frameworks. In this episode we discuss how Lloyd discovered the actuarial profession, starting his career initially in pensions consulting, his move internally to...

This week I'm delighted to be joined by Phillip White! Phil is an Actuarial Consultant at Buck (a Gallagher company) and has 14 years of experience in the pensions industry. We explore Phil's journey to date, and discuss setting sights on becoming an actuary in year 9 of school, getting his first job in pensions as an administrator, transitioning across to an actuarial career path, managing people, developing specialisms, and progressing his career without fully qualifying as an Actuary. ...

My guest this week is the wonderful Ingrid Chiu! Ingrid is a Lead Consultant at WTW in Reigate, and has 11 years' experience in the pensions sector. We explore Ingrid's career journey to date, discussing her initial 6 week internship, starting full-time on the graduate scheme, her experience with the actuarial exams, and gaining broader experience via secondments & specialist teams. Ingrid also shares her experience of balancing family life with work (and the support she has received from...

This week I'm joined by the wonderful Ji-Hyang Lee! Ji-Hyang is a Senior Consultant & Pensions Actuary at Aon, and has 18 years experience in the industry. We discuss her experience to date, from when she first discovered that Actuaries existed, securing her first role as a graduate, advice on actuarial exam technique, working for consultancies of different shapes and sizes, client relationships, career mentoring, and her work on diversity, equity and inclusion. Please connect with...

This week I'm delighted to be joined by Kylie Arbon! Kylie is a qualified Pensions Actuary, and Head of Transformation at Broadstone. We discuss how Kylie discovered the actuarial profession, her path to qualification, becoming a client facing consultant, her experience with Coaching & Mentoring, and transitioning from a traditional role to specialising in change management and business improvement. Kylie has worked for the same (growing) business throughout her whole career to date, and...

This week I'm joined by the wonderful Alexis Tate! Alexis has worked in the actuarial industry for 20 years, and is currently a GMP Operations Lead for Mercer. She is also a people leader, a mental health first aider and has taken on many different roles over her career. In this episode we discuss her journey to date, including how she first joined the actuarial profession, why she decided not to qualify having passed 14/15 exams, how she navigated her career and made strategic moves...

This week I'm delighted to be joined by Ilona Roberts! Ilona is a Pensions Actuary & Senior Manager at EY, and specialises in Pensions Risk Transfer consulting. Ilona shares her journey to date, from her first role in pensions working on the pensions review, her path to becoming a traditional pensions actuary (despite her school teacher advising her not to!), her experience of working for consultancies of different sizes, becoming an actuarial contractor, working for the Bulk Annuity...

This week on Actuarial People I'm delighted to be joined by Chris Anderson! After a couple of internships in pensions consulting whilst at university, Chris began his actuarial career in life insurance with Standard Life. Today he is a Director and Head of Life Actuarial - Scotland at EY. Chris gives incredible insight into his journey to date as an Actuary. We discuss beginning his career in life insurance, his path to qualification, his experience of career progression in the insurance...

This week I'm delighted to be joined by Masimba Zata. Masimba is a Director in the Insurance Solutions business at Moody's Analytics. He is also an IFoA Council Member, a member of the Board of Trustees for the IFoA Foundation and a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University. Masimba shares his story to date, from where he first discovered the actuarial profession, beginning his career as a pensions actuary, transitioning to insurance, moving up into senior positions, and his passion for...

This week I'm delighted to be joined by Suchi Dench. Suchi is a Consultant in the Risk Transfer and Funding & Benefits Teams at Mercer. We get to know Suchi and her 10+ year career journey to date, from when she first discovered the actuarial profession, her experience of working on US and UK pension schemes while working in India, her experience of relocating to the UK in 2020, developing her specialism in Risk Transfer consulting, and how she has reached her level of seniority without...

Welcome to episode three of Actuarial People, where I'm joined by Simon Harris. Simon began his career as a traditional Pensions Actuary, and is now a Associate Director in the Internal Audit Team of an international Investment Manager, where he is responsible for overseeing audits of the workplace investing business. We spend time getting to know Simon and his career journey to date, from when he first discovered that actuaries existed & his experience of working for a traditional...

Welcome to episode two of Actuarial People where I'm delighted to be joined by the wonderful Tasneem Rahman! Tas is a Risk Transfer Consultant with 6 years experience in the UK pensions industry. We talk about everything from when she first discovered actuaries existed, starting her career in pensions, her experience with the actuarial exams, moving from a traditional trustee consulting role to specialising in PRT, through to her experience with mental health and finding the right work/life...