Christine Hofbeck, FSA 2000, MAAA
Lebanon, NJ
Brief Description of the type of work you currently do:
Following over a decade as a lead Consulting Actuary in the retirement space for Kwasha Lipton/PWC, I began building predictive analytics capabilities for large global insurers. I successfully built out this function for AIG’s Property/Casualty Consumer and
Commercial lines and Prudential’s Group Life business. My trailblazing work in this space has been featured in many publications including The Actuary, Sync Magazine, and National Geographic’s documentary television series Breakthrough.
I recently left my position as Head of Pricing and Predictive Analytics at Prudential’s Group Insurance to pursue a short-term international opportunity which would enable me to live a dream and bring knowledge of the actuarial profession to millions of diverse Americans – more information to come!
Primary Area of Practice:
Life, Retirement
Other Areas of Practice/Interests:
I have a broad background of experience across insurance and consulting, retirement, life, individual and group, and P&C.
Why do you want to be on the Board?
I believe we have the greatest profession in the world. I want to continue to champion actuaries and the actuarial profession so we remain at the forefront of the most important business decisions, and relevant in the marketplace. Actuaries can do anything! As we see new roles such as data
scientists emerging, it is critical for the actuarial organizations to work together to both promote and improve our unique abilities to provide the right data-driven insights based on our extensive training and professional experience. I’d like to help make a difference for all of us with my positive,
motivating leadership.
Ethics and Transparency
Ethics and transparency are essential to professional practice and service on the board. How have you demonstrated ethics and transparency in the past? How will your own ethics and views on transparency influence your decisions and actions as a member of the SOA board?
My work and behaviors have always been routed in a strong moral and ethical foundation. I have worked very closely in all of my positions with the legal, compliance, risk and privacy teams to ensure that current and innovative new approaches to data-driven
decisioning are ethically sound and transparent. I have openly encouraged my teams to share discovered errors or concerns without fear of retaliation. I have worked collaboratively with audit teams to ensure all procedures are openly shared, understood, and improved where necessary. My decisions are made
to best benefit the organization within a strong moral and ethical framework.
As a member of the SOA Board, I will ensure that actions and decisions are made to best benefit our members and the actuarial community as a whole. We must be clear that transparency can at times appear to conflict with confidentiality – and during these times, it is
critical that we act in the best interest of our members and their employers and organizations, acting responsibly and ethically, while maintaining required confidentiality.
Team Player
Collaborative working relationships are essential to the governance function of the SOA Board of Directors, especially as board members work with each other, volunteers, and staff to achieve the strategic goals and mission of SOA. Describe a situation from either your professional or volunteer experiences that demonstrated you are a team player.
The following is just one example of my demonstrated team focus in a volunteer setting for a large organization:
During Sept 2014 through June 2016, I was earning my MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) while continuing to work full-time as the head of group insurance pricing and predictive analytics for a large global insurer. During the final 6 months of
the MIT program, students were placed into groups and assigned to help an international company solve a cross-border management challenge. My 6-person team included an engineer, a manufacturing specialist, a US Navy fighter pilot, a Human Resources senior executive, an entrepreneur, and an actuary (me). We
each brought a different perspective, experience, and skill set to the project. We had different preferred methods of communication and varying levels of availability (as we were all working full-time). We needed to collaborate across six time zones and four languages. Together, my team completed a wildly
successful project for our assigned organization – and we were deemed to have one of the best approaches to teamwork of our class. In December 2016, my team was invited back to MIT to present our approach to teamwork to the MIT MBA class of 2017.
Our successes stemmed from understanding, patience, utilization of different skillsets from each member, willingness to try new technologies and approaches, organization, clear timelines and deliverables, frequent checkpoints, transparent and open communication, brainstorming / sharing of
ideas without fear of looking foolish, and kindness. Teamwork isn’t always easy, but outcomes from diverse teams are shown again and again to be more successful than those from individuals or homogenous teams. It’s worth the effort!
Intellectual Engagement
Board members need to exhibit curiosity and a desire to learn about areas that may potentially impact the SOA and the profession. How do you stay informed about what is going on nationally and internationally, and how do you apply that knowledge into your work with SOA and the profession.
I have continued to stay informed and on the forefront of innovation through various outlets, including a vast actuarial network, reading articles from a myriad of sources (many accessed through LinkedIn, search engines, industry/tech magazines, or forwarded to me by
various business contacts across industries), and attending industry presentations. My quest for continued knowledge and development can be seen by my earning an MBA from a top school, while also continuing to serve on SOA project teams such as the Cultivating Opportunities Team and the Predictive
Analytics Advisory Group. I participated in the SOA/CAA executive exchange program and have worked collaboratively with the Actuarial Foundation, the International Association of Black Actuaries, the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and the North American Actuarial Council. I have published numerous
articles about predictive analytics and the advancement of the actuarial profession overall. I recently completed a 2-year term as a contributing editor of The Actuary magazine (in this role, editors read every submitted article for potential publication).
My work experience has included a wide breadth of practice areas, including over a dozen years in retirement consulting, and a decade more in P&C (both consumer and commercial lines) and Life Insurance. This wide experience has given me a unique perspective and
understanding of the actuarial profession and the multiple actuarial organizations. On a personal level, my global curiosity has revealed itself as I’ve travelled through all seven continents to observe countless cultures and customs.
I think it is critically important that actuaries continue to dynamically evolve and develop, staying on the forefront of technology, communication, and collaboration. My own personal professional experiences are evidence of my desire to continue to learn and apply new techniques, knowledge,
perspectives, and technologies.
Stewardship
Respectful and prudent use of resources is an important function of all board members. Explain how you have demonstrated this characteristic in either your work or volunteer experiences and how it will carry over to your role on the SOA Board.
I consider “prudent use of resources” to cover both people (process) and dollars.
With respect to people (process), I think we all need to be mindful of people’s time and other responsibilities. All work and processes should be efficient and necessary, and carried out by the most appropriate level and skillset. A second set of eyeballs goes a long way in saving time down the road on correcting mistakes. I
have streamlined many projects, eliminating steps that are no longer necessary and adding checks that will prevent future re-dos.
With respect to dollars, in my professional roles I have been responsible for my team budgets. I have never approached budgeting with a mindset of “spend what you have” and “consistently push for more dollars”. Instead, I’ve looked to spend budget in
the most efficient way to lead to the best outcome. For example, travel only when face-to-face is truly necessary, otherwise can Skype or phone accomplish the goal? I pride myself on lowering budgets/expenses, while still finding opportunities to expand skillsets and training.
Overall, we need to be mindful of sunk costs both in terms of financial outcomes and project completion. At every point, one must consider if the present value of future benefit exceeds the present value of future work/cost. Prudent use of resources
is especially important for a volunteer organization in order to assure continued good health of the organization.
My communication style is positive but direct, leading to an overall efficiency in the projects which I lead or take part in. I look forward to bringing my efficient leadership style to the Board to ensure that we are making the best financial decisions for our members and
allocation of human resources in our projects.
Professional Background
Provide a brief description of your professional background and the type of work you currently do and explain how these experiences have prepared you for the Elected Board Member role.
Following my 1993 graduation from the University of Pennsylvania in Mathematics, I worked for over a dozen years for one of the top benefits consulting firms in the country (Kwasha Lipton, later absorbed by PWC). As Consulting Actuary for a number of life, health, DB and DC plans, I advised on optimal plan
strategies and redesigns, and ensured FAS 87/88/106 ERISA and non-discrimination compliance. I also earned my FSA (Retirement), EA, and MAAA.
I resigned from Kwasha to spend several years as a stay-at-home-mom, and attribute my seamless return to the workforce as another great aspect of our profession and reputation as actuaries.
In 2010, I moved into the P&C Consumer Lines space to build a comprehensive Analytics practice for Chartis/AIG. This effort included complete model building/analytics support across products and functions, detailed competitive market analyses, IT support, and data
governance. Once my team was running seamlessly, I was transferred to Global Casualty to launch this deemed core capability in another area. In Commercial Lines, I developed and implemented predictive modeling and data initiatives to refine traditional
actuarial pricing, and provided oversight of variable selection, modeling results, reporting, training, pricing, and business rules.
Most recently, I have moved back into the Life space, leading Prudential’s Group Insurance actuarial pricing teams, responsible for the pricing of group life, disability, critical illness, accident, and other products. I also built a Predictive Analytics
team/capability to support GI across functions. While working at Prudential, I earned an MBA at MIT (flying between NJ and MA every other week!)
I have volunteered extensively for the SOA (being named a 2016 Outstanding Volunteer) and numerous other actuarial organizations. This unusually wide breadth of professional and actuarial volunteer experience allows me to better understand the many different actuarial roles and perspectives of our members.
Volunteer and Governance Experience
Describe how your previous volunteer, personal and governance experiences would strengthen your contributions to the SOA Board and organization.
I have a great deal of volunteer experience with the SOA, so am familiar with many of the processes, people, and priorities of the SOA. I was a contributing editor of The
Actuary magazine, a member of two research project oversight teams, and worked toward expanding predictive modeling opportunities for actuaries through the Cultivating Opportunities Team. I am currently helping develop a predictive analytics certificate program as a member of the
Predictive Analytics Advisory Group. I have presented numerous times at the Annual and other SOA Meetings on various topics in predictive analytics and communications. I was named a 2016 Outstanding Volunteer for my contributions to the SOA. I have multiple volunteer experiences with other actuarial
organizations, such as the CCA and IABA (important as we look to strengthen our membership, influence, and relevance as actuaries) and non-actuarial organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Club and International Committee of the Red Cross (further opportunity to flex team work muscles!). Lastly, I have
been a part of multiple outreach efforts regarding community awareness of actuaries, including being featured for actuarial innovation in several magazines and taking part in a National Geographic television documentary regarding advancements in data analytics by actuaries.
