Skip to main content
The Actuary: The magazine of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries - return to the homepage Logo of The Actuary website
  • Search
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit The Actuary Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Logo of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Main navigation

  • News
  • Features
    • General Features
    • Interviews
    • Students
    • Opinion
  • Topics
  • Knowledge
    • Business Skills
    • Careers
    • Events
    • Predictions by The Actuary
    • Whitepapers
    • Moody's - Climate Risk Insurers series
    • Webinars
    • Podcasts
  • Jobs
  • IFoA
    • CEO Comment
    • IFoA News
    • People & Social News
    • President Comment
  • Archive
Quick links:
  • Home
  • Sections
  • Students
  • 2014
Interviews

Actuary of the future: Sam Mawoyo

Open-access content Wednesday 30th July 2014 — updated 5.13pm, Wednesday 29th April 2020

Sam Mawoyo of...

2

Employer and area of work African Actuarial Consultants - general insurance department.

How would your best friend describe you? Something very lengthy with "driven ambitious control freak… upside risk accommodating but not Mother Theresa great friend" in it, but I didn't want to finish my word count on this question.

What motivates you? Proving anyone who endorses or trusts me right.

What would be your personal motto? Keep facing forward; ex fide fiducia - from faith comes confidence; and esse quam videri - to be, rather than to seem (to be). It's circumstantial, but thanks go to my former Jesuit schools for drilling the Latin mottos into me.

Name five dream companions to be stuck on a desert island with? In no particular order: Warren Buffet, Strive Masiyiwa, Arsène Wenger, Damian Marley and Muhammad Ali in his heyday.

What's your most 'actuarial' habit? Responding to most questions by saying "it depends" then listing all assumptions for possible answers and still not give a final answer at the end of it. 

I've struggled really hard to not do so in answering these questions.

If you could learn one random skill, what would you learn? Play the mbira (thumb piano).

Favourite Excel function? It depends. One of VLOOKUP and the many variants of the IF function.

How do you relax away from the office? Watching football, going to the golf range - especially after studying, acoustic music evenings, reading motivational literature and catching up with my girlfriend. It really does depend.

Alternative career choice? I was going to be an actuary or nothing, so I never gave any thought to the alternative.

Tell us something unusual about yourself I'm superstitious about Arsenal FC-related things and I genuinely feel my actions have an influence over the outcome of matches.

Greatest risk you have ever taken? Leaving university after the first year to study for the Fellowship with ActEd as my partner. It seems to be working so far.

If you could go back in history, who would you like to meet? Michael Jackson - His music was superb and I would ask him for a dance lesson or two.

What's your most treasured possession? A set of horns from a bull my maternal grandfather slaughtered.

What are the top three things you would like to achieve in your lifetime? Be a chief executive or a chairman of the board of a listed company. Become a Fellow of the IFoA. Have an influence on Arsenal FC player signings.

If you ruled the world, what would you change first? Do away with extreme poverty.

Do you know an actuary destined for greatness? You can nominate an Actuary of the Future by emailing [email protected]

You may also be interested in...

AOTF-Felix-Mantz-Picture--News

Actuary of the future - September

Felix Mantz of Towers Watson
Wednesday 27th August 2014
Open-access content
2

Luiz Bueno

Luiz was born and raised in São Paulo. He works as a life and health products actuary for Swiss Re. In 2013 he completed an MSc in Actuarial Science at Cass Business School, London. His interests include Portuguese and Brazilian literature, and good movies. He is a member of the IFoA.
Thursday 3rd July 2014
Open-access content
2

Adhnan Chaudhry

Adhnan was born and grew up in Edinburgh. He currently works for Ernst & Young in the general insurance sector specialising in reserving, capital modelling and Solvency II. He describes himself as sporty, enjoying climbing, and more recently scuba diving with friends. He is a member of the IF0A.
Tuesday 1st July 2014
Open-access content
2

Neeharika Prasad

Neeharika currently lives in Sydney, working at Ernst & Young in the banking and capital markets team within actuarial services. She has spent most of her life in Canberra where she studied for her exams at the Australian National University. She is a member of the Actuaries Institute (Australia).
Tuesday 1st July 2014
Open-access content
2

End of the rainbow

Jessica Elkin spots the light at the end of the tunnel following the exams and explains what to expect when you reach that point
Wednesday 30th July 2014
Open-access content
2

The predictive power of data

William Trump and Paul Hately consider what is really achievable by using ‘big data’
Tuesday 29th July 2014
Open-access content

Latest from Professional

dxf

Bespoke tailoring: the UK government’s proposed reforms to Solvency II

Vrishti Goel discusses the UK government’s proposed reforms to Solvency II
Wednesday 31st August 2022
Open-access content
Financial services seen as most desirable sector for career changers

Financial services seen as most desirable sector for career changers

Over a third of UK workers will look to start a new career in the next year due to the cost-of-living crisis, with financial services seen as the joint most desirable sector, KPMG research suggests.
Wednesday 24th August 2022
Open-access content
web_p43_Student_student_july_2_CREDIT_Simon-Scarsbrook.jpg

Three’s a charm: the next iteration of the internet

Adeetya Tantia explains what we can expect from the next iteration of the internet, and how it could shake up the insurance industry
Wednesday 6th July 2022
Open-access content

Latest from missing_standfirst

news in brief

March news in brief

Paper: A Cashless Society in 2019 Cash is under pressure. A tense 2018 led to a tumultuous 2019: Facebook's announcement of plans to launch its Libra cryptocurrency with a consortium of companies united all regulators against the project.
Friday 28th February 2020
Open-access content
2

Forging new paths

The Terminator is coming!  At least that's one potential vision of the future, invoked by Boris Johnson at the UN last year while he speculated about artificial intelligence (AI). We can certainly debate how realistic that vision is, and what the possible timescales might be.
Friday 28th February 2020
Open-access content
2

Expert advice

This edition of the magazine focuses on data science and its applications, which will be a recurring theme for the IFoA.
Friday 28th February 2020
Open-access content

Latest from inline_local_link

2

COVID-19 forum for actuaries launched

A forum for actuaries has been launched to help the profession come together and learn how best to respond to the deadly coronavirus sweeping the world.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
Open-access content
2

Travel insurers expect record payouts this year

UK travel insurers expect to pay a record £275m to customers this year as coronavirus grounds flights across the world, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has revealed.
Wednesday 25th March 2020
Open-access content
2

Grim economic forecasts made as countries lockdown

A sharp recession is imminent in the vast majority of developed and emerging economies as the deadly coronavirus forces businesses to shut down across the world.
Tuesday 24th March 2020
Open-access content

Latest from Interviews

rdth

Make My Money Matter's Tony Burdon on the practical power of sustainable pensions

Years working in international development showed Tony Burdon, head of Make My Money Matter, that sustainable pensions can harness trillions of pounds to build a better world – at a scale governments and charities can’t. He talks to Travis Elsum
Wednesday 1st March 2023
Open-access content
iugu

Interview: chemist and climate expert Sir David King on how actuaries can save the Arctic

Actuaries can save the Arctic, according to esteemed chemist and climate-change expert Sir David King. He tells Alex Martin that risk management is as relevant to preserving the planet as groundbreaking science
Wednesday 1st February 2023
Open-access content
res

Interview: Tim Harford on the importance of questioning our assumptions

Tim Harford speaks to Ruolin Wang about why it’s so important to slow down and question things from emotive headlines to the numbers and algorithms we use in our work
Wednesday 30th November 2022
Open-access content

Latest from 2014

2

Actuary of the future - November

Thomas Smith of AIG – General insurance, reserving.
Thursday 30th October 2014
Open-access content
2

Monitoring the experience

Jessica Elkin takes a tongue-in-cheek glimpse at life in an Orwellian dystopia and asks if this could mean an end to flawed actuarial data
Thursday 30th October 2014
Open-access content
2

Actuary of the future - October

Craig Moran of First Actuarial – Pensions
Thursday 25th September 2014
Open-access content
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Latest Jobs

Leading Insurer/Asset Manager – Pricing Actuary (Mortgages)

London (Greater)
Competitive
Reference
148750

Senior Consultant - Risk Settlement - Any UK Location - Up to £100,000 plus bonus

London / Manchester / Edinburgh / Remote
Up to £100,000 + Bonus
Reference
148832

Finance Transformation Actuarial student/Qualified Actuary

London (Central)
£50,000 - £75,000 depending on experience
Reference
148830
See all jobs »
 
 
 
 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to The Actuary

Receive the print edition straight to your door

Subscribe
Spread-iPad-slantB-june.png

Topics

  • Data Science
  • Investment
  • Risk & ERM
  • Pensions
  • Environment
  • Soft skills
  • General Insurance
  • Regulation Standards
  • Health care
  • Technology
  • Reinsurance
  • Global
  • Life insurance
​
FOLLOW US
The Actuary on LinkedIn
@TheActuaryMag on Twitter
Facebook: The Actuary Magazine
CONTACT US
The Actuary
Tel: (+44) 020 7880 6200
​

IFoA

About IFoA
Become an actuary
IFoA Events
About membership

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to The Actuary Magazine
Contribute

The Actuary Jobs

Actuarial job search
Pensions jobs
General insurance jobs
Solvency II jobs

© 2023 The Actuary. The Actuary is published on behalf of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries by Redactive Publishing Limited. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ