By Stephen Camilli
Summer is a time of open horizons and endless possibilities, but sometimes you can get lost in admiring the view and options, and never decide on what to do. The key is to contemplate just long enough to know where to go and then act. As innovators and entrepreneurs, we are people of action, who need to strike the balance between contemplation or brainstorming and decisiveness. Hopefully, we can enjoy the ride, and pave the way for those following in our footsteps. Here are some of the actions we’ve been involved with as a section over the last three months.
A great new member benefit is available to any member of the section—a free web subscription to The New York Times, a $200 value. Spread the word about this great benefit to your colleagues who are not yet E&I members. If you are reading this, and are not an E&I member, join!
We held a town hall meeting on actuarial entrepreneurs in June. It was well attended and well received. A free recording of the town hall meeting is available on our section website. If you didn’t attend, check it out. As an outgrowth of this meeting, we are considering launching two listservs, one on InsurTech, and one on Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Actuaries to continue the conversation started during the town hall. Stay tuned for more details.
We are moving forward with a research project involving actuarial opportunities in InsurTech together with several other sections. We are also seeking to launch an actuarial tracked pitch competition as part of a larger InsurTech pitch session and are discussing this with several potential partners.
We have been expanding our podcast. If you would like to participate as an interviewer, interviewee, or can suggest someone to interview, please reach out to us.
On a more personal level, I am often deeply affected by stories of our nation’s growing opioid crisis. Rebecca Owens’ article on the subject and her open-ended questions led me to believe that the actuarial profession can make important contributions to help solve this crisis. Please read the article, and get involved if it sparks the same belief within you.
This is my last column as section chair. Bill Rearden will take over for me in the next issue of the newsletter. Thank you for the reads over this past year.
Stephen Camilli, FSA, is president of ACTEX Learning. He can be contacted at Stephen@Actexmadriver.com.