Randi E. Woods, FSA 1999, MAAA, CERA

Chief Actuary and Assistant Vice President, Principal International, Inc., Des Moines, IA

Brief description of the type of work you currently do:

Lead the actuarial department for the international division of the Principal Financial Group. Responsible for valuation, pricing, capital management, risk management, risk quantification and internal controls over actuarial items.

Primary Area of Practice:

Finance

Other Areas of Practice / Interests:

Capital Budgeting, Financial Reporting, General Management, International Issues, Investments, Life Insurance, Non–Traditional, Regulatory, Risk Management

Professional Background:

I have had seven years of consulting experience and over 16 years of life insurance industry experience. My experience has been very broad and covered multiple product lines including life and health insurance, annuities, pension, and mutual funds. I've been responsible for pricing, product development, valuation, capital management, ALM and enterprise risk management. Most recently, I've been the Chief Actuary for the international division of the Principal Financial Group for the last two years. In this role, I'm responsible for all actuarial and capital planning activities and functions performed by and for our international operations world–wide. I serve on Principal International's and Principal Financial Group's risk management committees.

Volunteer Experience:

While I have no SOA volunteer experience, I am current involved with multiple Academy and ACLI committees focused on international financial reporting and solvency issues as well as risk management.

My most significant volunteer experience to date has been with the Boy Scouts of America where I have held multiple volunteer and leadership positions over the last decade and have been recognized by receiving the District Award of Merit. It is through my BSA experience that I have learned the skills of working with a volunteer organization; at times much different than the skills needed in working with employees.

Vision Statement:

I think a major challenge to the actuarial profession today is that we are still seen by our outside peers and being primarily technicians. Whether it's stereotyping or not, when you talk to someone about being an actuary, the things that come to mind are mortality table construction, formulaic reserves, number crunching, etc. We need to change the vision of the actuary as that of the consummate business–person, trained in taking number intensive analyses and translating the results into insightful business recommendations. While we include many business topics in the examination syllabus, we spend little time teaching how to integrate these skills via communication skills.

I feel that the Board needs to take a look at our "soft skills": communication, management, and general business knowledge. Often times, the actuary needs to be able to communicate technical concepts to non–technical audiences. This is becoming more important as actuaries progress into more "non–traditional" roles. At my current employer, one of the most common complaints is that new students cannot communicate effectively: their written communication skills are poor, they don't know how to organize their thoughts and they have trouble explaining concepts "in words", without the use of formulas and numbers.

As actuaries move out of the protected world of insurance and into non–traditional roles, we will be expected to perform at, or above, the levels of our MBA, CFA, etc. peers. No matter how technically strong we are, if we are unable to communicate effectively with these peers and with management, we will not be accepted as the business experts that we are.