Who will lead the SOA? You decide.

Candidate Questionnaire

Hans J. Wagner, FSA 1992
Advisor to Insure-Tech Startup
Volunteer
Maisons-Laffitte, France

Brief description of current work:

Volunteering for SOA; advising an insure-tech startup

Primary Area of Practice:

Risk Management, Life

Other Areas of Practice:

Financial Reporting, Valuation, Pricing, Capital Management, Investments, Reinsurance, Annuities, Health Insurance

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.

My range of experiences has given me exposure to a variety of topics and situations that can be valuable to the Board, being well prepared to listen and absorb the ideas of others while contributing proposals based on integrating my background with their input. Experience across multiple countries with multi-cultural teams gives me a unique ability to help the SOA’s international growth strategy.

Over my 30+ year insurance career I have worked across a wide variety of businesses and functions, as well as markets in four continents. My areas of practice have included:

• life, annuity, and health product development and pricing in multiple geographies for diverse customers through varied distribution channels,
• valuation and reporting in many accounting frameworks including US GAAP, Australian MoS, French GAAP, IFRS, and Chinese Accounting Standards as well as multiple regulatory solvency bases,
• valuation and public reporting under various value frameworks,
• general financial management,
• enterprise risk management,
• capital management,
• mergers and acquisitions,
• strategic planning, and
• employee benefits valuation and management.

I have worked for subsidiaries and holding companies, for stock and mutual companies, with experience both in group and individual insurance. As well as working at insurers, my experience includes auditing and consulting for insurers and regulators as well as participating in a wide range of industry bodies including the CFO Forum Embedded Value Working Group, the IASB Employee Benefits Advisory Group, and being a founding director of the Life and Longevity Markets Association. Although most of my work has been with life, annuity, and health insurance, I have also done some work with Property/Casualty business.

I worked as a high school teacher for several years before starting my actuarial career and have participated in designing and delivering an extensive range of training programs about different subjects and for a variety of audiences.

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. 

The SOA’s richest resource is its members, and their volunteer effort. The Board’s key decisions are strategies to deploy and grow that resource. I have knowledge and appreciation of the member-volunteer capabilities built from personal SOA experience, while working in other organizations provided lessons in differing contexts and options for governance and execution.

I have been an SOA volunteer for over 30 years, across a range of areas which cover only a fraction of SOA activities but provide a solid foundation for further work with the Board. I have also had a wide range of governance experiences, both in companies and outside bodies.

SOA volunteer experiences:

• Professional Development Committee and major meeting planning committees, including as Chair (2020-present)
• Task forces on Adapting Education for International Needs and Professional Development Redesign and Engagement Strategy (2017-20)
• China Committee (2016-18)
• Coordinated Paris exam center (2005-2011)
• Sponsored professional development projects (early 2000s)
• International Section Council including Asia-Pacific Region ambassador coordinator (2000ish)
• Valuation Actuary Symposium Planning Committee (late 90s)
• Exam and Education committees including as a Vice Chair (1990s)
• Authored articles and frequent speaker at SOA events (and other events) (1995-present).

Other governance experiences:

• Chair of the European CFO Forum Embedded Value Working Group (2007-08)
• Founding Director of the Life and Longevity Markets Association (2010-11),
• Working closely with the Boards of several insurers (1999-2019),
• Senior Management role at ICBC-AXA Life (2011-19),
• Management roles at subsidiaries and corporate centers (1998-2021),
• External auditor of insurers with EY (1994-98),
• Member of the IASB’s Employee Benefits Advisory Group (2000s),
• Math Department Chair at Oakwood School (1984-85)
• President of Tank co-operative residence and dining hall (1981), and
• Station Director at WHHS and WOBC (1978-81).

Building global perspectives is a focus of the Strategic Plan, and my skills and experiences are well suited to contributing to the Board in that area.

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?

While they have been largely supplanted by other developments, the European Market Consistent Embedded Value Principles were an important step forward in financial communication and management for life insurers. Chairing the Embedded Value Working Group was a fascinating and challenging assignment. The CFO Forum drew together over a dozen insurers to improve financial reporting and regulation, with the EV Working Group supporting the CFOs. We needed consensus from a multinational group of actuaries and other professionals, supported by consultants, facing different local business and valuation practices with some focused mostly on a few markets while others had global businesses.

Leading that team required careful listening and assisting communication so that all members built a shared understanding that the approaches adopted were the best choice for the group, even if not perfectly aligned with their initial views. We needed to reach technical decisions but also develop rationales that the team agreed and could gain support from outside constituents. We also had to win the approval of the CFO Forum itself, with an even more diverse group of personalities and interests. The leaders of one team are often the “grunts” of a broader team.

In addition to chairing meetings and building consensus, I participated in crafting and delivering presentations that the CFO Forum made to the market announcing the updated Principles. We also had discussions with the International Accounting Standards Board and various regulators within and outside Europe. While the Principles surely were not perfect, they were an important stepping stone towards improving financial and business reporting, and I am very proud of the achievements of the Working Group.

One specific area where the Working Group made a conscious decision that later events undermined was the exclusion of a liquidity premium in the valuation. Looking at historical data, the Group decided that the additional complexity was not warranted; the events of the Global Financial Crisis quickly changed the available data set and demonstrated that liquidity premiums could be volatile and needed to be included. The process of the Working Group was solid in its time, although adjustments to the Principles were needed and later made.

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.

DEI initiatives are one of the areas of greatest potential for strengthening our recruiting to build the future of the profession, and additionally better serve society. As the SOA grows internationally, recognition of different local situations will mean DEI programs will need to vary somewhat by territory, but common principles and frameworks can be applied.

The existing affinity partners program is important to facilitate ties in various communities, and the SOA should continue to investigate if additional organizations exist around the world that would be interesting to expand the network.

The DEI training for volunteers that I attended was of extremely high quality, and the volunteer community is a large number of our members (varying by territory). Opportunities to reach beyond the volunteer base should be explored, including whether local actuarial clubs could be an effective conduit.

It is important to remember than an equitable playing field is not necessarily a level playing field, and dedicating some additional resources outside of traditional channels is a worthwhile investment (for example in building contacts with universities or schools that have the potential for STEM candidates but haven’t traditionally been a source of actuaries).

Measurement is important in driving achievement, and the SOA Diversity Report is a useful tool. Whether additional categorizations can be added, and whether explicit targets in some areas should be developed, would be a good topic for Board review.

International

The SOA has been growing internationally. How would your experiences help the SOA further the needs of the membership outside of North America?

Each territory presents unique opportunities and challenges for the SOA in identifying how best to serve current members and attract effective new members. There are cultural differences, different local actuarial organizations, different presences of other international actuarial organizations, and strong market differences. One possibly surprising example: research in multiple markets has shown candidates for qualification prefer exams in English rather than local language, but post-qualification development is preferred in local language. My experience spanning North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe makes me uniquely suited to helping the SOA Board develop strategies that fit the needs of our increasingly global membership, while also strengthening our traditional core markets.

Having lived and worked outside my home country of the United States for over 25 years, I have a deep personal international experience and understanding of our global members’ needs. My actuarial career started in the US, and from 1987-1998 I worked for several insurers as well as an auditing/consulting firm and had time with corporate oversight of Canadian business. I spent 1998-2000 in Melbourne, Australia in a role which covered East and Southeast Asia as well, during which I got my feet wet as an expat and became acquainted with Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. 2001-2002 was a transitional period continuing to serve those markets while splitting time between Melbourne, Hong Kong, and eventually Paris. From 2002-2011 I had roles based in Paris but with global scope, and then from 2011-2019 I was in Shanghai focusing on China but also tied to a regional structure which had added India and Malaysia. Since 2019 I have been back in Paris, again focusing globally. During my time in Shanghai I served on the China Committee for its first years after it was launched.

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?

Despite being the world’s largest actuarial organization, the SOA has very finite resources both financial and in terms of volunteer capabilities. Beyond the SOA the actuarial profession is small globally. Therefore, we must prioritize and make choices- but it is also important to attract strong candidates for the future of the profession and our ability to serve society at large.

The optimal steps will vary by territory, as young people’s paths to career choices differ. Leveraging our members with engaging personalities and presence through social media and if possible traditional media will raise our profile and help attract candidates. Providing resources and encouragement for members to connect with high schools and universities can spread the message of the diverse opportunities available for actuaries, and the bright future of our profession. We should reach as broadly as possible; while there are efficiencies to approach traditional feeder schools and those ties need to be maintained, other schools can provide a broader and more diverse pool of potential actuaries.

The range of opportunities for actuaries needs to be emphasized; we have a technical foundation but while some roles stay technical actuaries work in many interesting and attractive areas. We shouldn’t just be competing among “technical career options.”

Personal Experience

Share a personal experience, trait, or characteristic that will help the membership to better understand you and your candidacy.

Looking at my work background of moving globally, it is not surprising that I love travel. One of the most interesting trips was as my family was preparing to leave China. We embarked on traveling the ancient Silk Road, aiming to travel by land from eastern China through central Asia and eventually to Istanbul. Circumstances forced us to turn around at Bukhara, Uzbekistan, but the trip through central and western China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan was fascinating. It was a not a region I knew well before, and the trip showed a very different side of China than its east (much like seeing the US west of the Mississippi for the first time could be eye-opening) as well as introducing two of the “stans”. Meeting the people, discussing their lives, and learning more of the region’s history and culture was fascinating, as was seeing the geography.

I love getting to know people from different backgrounds, exploring our common humanity while building understanding of different points of view.