Candidate Questionnaire
Karen L. Anway, FSA 2002, EA 1997
Recently retired from WTW
Brief description of current work:
Prior to retiring three months ago, I was the North America Operations Manager for WTW and a Consulting Actuary for several clients.
Primary Area of Practice:
Retirement
Other Areas of Practice:
Education & Research
Professional Background
Provide a description of your professional background and the type of work you have performed. Explain how these experiences have prepared you as an Elected Board Member and qualify you in carrying out the strategic direction of the SOA.
I worked for WTW for 32 years as a consulting actuary for our client’s retirement programs. For the last 16 years at WTW I also served as the North America (NA) Operations Manager for the Retirement Line of Business. As a consulting actuary, the connection with the SOA’s research and education is an integral part of our profession. As a board member it will be important to continue to build that community and meet the key objectives for our actuarial community in all practices across the globe. Building community, creating valuable research and maintaining a robust and attractive educational system for both continuing education and actuarial candidates will be some of my primary goals in helping to develop future strategy as a board member. As the NA Operations Manager I was able to direct many key strategic initiatives for WTW. This internal role helped me develop in areas of collaboration across practices and countries across the globe, leveraging our best talents and practices, overcoming challenges and implementing effective change management strategies.
Volunteer and Governance Experience
Describe how your volunteer and governance experiences would strengthen your contributions to the SOA Board, the SOA, and strategic plan execution. List your relevant volunteer experience. Include the name of the organization, your role, and approximate dates.
As a member of the Kettering University Applied Mathematics Advisory Board from 2015-2022 I helped develop, update and maintain a meaningful education for students pursuing an education and future employment in the fields of mathematics. As a member of Women and Mathematics (WAM) from 2006-2012 we worked on empowering women in the sciences for success. I have been a volunteer for the SOA in many areas of the SOA’s Education and Examination system: starting as an examination question writer and grader in 2004, joining the FSA curriculum committee in 2008, serving as the General Officer for Retirement Curriculum from 2010-2015, and as a member of the Education Executive Committee from 2015-2020. Other volunteer roles for the SOA include: serving on the Professional Development Committee from 2015-2018, The Actuary publication committee from 2019-2022, the Modularization Task Force in 2021, the ASA Curriculum Redesign task force in 2015-2016, the FSA Redesign task force in 2022-2023, and the FSA Implementation task force in 2023-2024. Throughout these volunteer experiences I have learned the value of teamwork, collaboration, building consensus and engaging others in our profession to develop innovative objectives and strategic plans to strengthen the future of our profession.
Leadership/Managing Change
Describe a significant project that you led in the workplace or in your volunteer activities. Describe how you addressed changes that were proposed, whether changes were made, or were not made after considering all options. How did you influence alignment in the final outcome, and what were the biggest challenges you had to overcome?
When Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt merged in 2010, I chaired the integration task force for the design and implementation of the Towers Watson (TW) Actuarial Development Program. The task force consisted of eight members across North America and TW’s lines of businesses, we successfully collaborated and developed a strong program to support the success of our ~700 actuarial candidates with the objective of providing a “best in class” development program for our colleagues. We were able to accomplish this not by taking the best of the prior company’s key program designs but by developing new design components and building consensus across all stakeholders. The biggest challenges were gaining approval across countries and practices who employed actuarial candidates, each with their own goals and perceived obstacles. The final program was then leveraged and adopted internationally, where I worked with leaders in other countries to adjust portions of the program for their specific market.
Diversity
What should the SOA’s goals be in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion? You can read more about current efforts by the organization at www.soa.org/programs/diversity-inclusion.
It is well recognized that a diverse membership fosters innovation, creativity, and higher levels of membership engagement. These are all areas that are important to the long-term success of the SOA and should be a high priority for our organization. Some goals to help drive diversity, equity and inclusion would include: boost the cultural competencies of our volunteers, staffing and membership; promote inclusive behavior; being mindful of volunteer recruiting practices; training staff and volunteers responsible for developing our education and examinations; finding ways to celebrate our diversity; and ensuring that we are recognizing religious holidays when scheduling meetings, training, exams or volunteer activities.
International
The SOA has been growing internationally. How would your experiences help the SOA further the needs of the membership outside of North America?
In my role at WTW, I worked closely with international colleagues and leaders including international colleagues who supported North America. In addition, many of the SOA task forces and committees I served on included international SOA members. Through both of these experiences I gained a lot of insight into our international members and actuarial candidates’ needs along with an understanding of cultural differences, priorities and objectives.
Emerging
The SOA needs to continue to attract the brightest students to our actuarial profession and now there are more technical career options available. What do you recommend that the SOA do to continue to attract the right people to the actuarial profession?
I believe it is important to keep in mind that the actuarial profession is continually evolving, the work that actuaries do is not the same as it was ten years ago nor will it be the same ten years from now, and AI will accelerate this. This means that the skills an actuary needs to compete in the market are also changing. The brightest students recognize this, they want to be challenged and develop the skills required in our changing landscape. I would recommend the SOA promote the future possibilities of the profession and the wide variety of marketable skills an actuarial candidate will gain that will prepare them for an interesting and challenging career in a wide-ranging field of professions.
Personal Experience
Share a personal experience, trait, or characteristic that will help the membership to better understand you and your candidacy.
I love to travel and am fortunate to be able to say I have visited every state in the US, every Canadian province, more than 50 countries and five continents. The thing I enjoy most about travel is being able to learn about different cultures and traditions which has taught me so much and given me more appreciation, understanding and respect for different points of view and ways of life. I am also an avid reader (3-4 books a month) across a wide range of genres…currently reading the biography of Fredrick Douglass. I could say that reading provides me with the same appreciation for history, cultural and social diversity and differing points of view as travel.