I envisage my role of president as facilitating the creation of an environment where members and staff of the IFoA can all work together with a single focus to secure the future of our profession.
It is a privilege for me to take on the position of president of the IFoA for this forthcoming year. I envisage my role of president as facilitating the creation of an environment where members and staff of the IFoA can all work together with a single focus to secure the future of our profession.
I am a firm believer in the robustness of the actuarial skillset and its application in more fields, and I want to continue the good work that my predecessors have begun. We need to develop a concrete picture of what our future looks like and start putting in place the structures and work streams that will get us there.
I believe in the value of teamwork to achieve results, and with this in mind, I want to encourage each of you to volunteer and give something back in order to help our profession grow.
It's also high time that actuaries stepped out of the shadows and made people aware of what it is we do. How can we move into new areas when others don't even know about us?
My challenge to you is: find someone who hasn't heard of actuaries, or who gives you that blank stare when you tell them you are an actuary, and tell them what you actually do. Don't generalise - really tell them about your role, and make it personal.
And when you do, tell us about it. Use the hashtag #IAMANACTUARY and let us know about your conversations on social media. Let's start a dialogue and have some fun promoting ourselves and our profession!
Jules Constantinou is the president of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries