Candidate Questionnaire

Kyle M. Rudden, FSA 2003, ACAS 2009
Managing Director & Consulting Actuary
KR Services Limited
Trinidad & Tobago
Brief description of current work:
Heading a team of actuaries and related professionals providing actuarial consulting services in the life insurance, general insurance, pensions and banking practice areas, primarily in the Caribbean / Central America. Appointed Actuary to Life & General Insurers
Primary Area of Practice:
Life Insurance, General Insurance
Other Areas of Practice:
Pensions, Banking
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.
After qualifying as an accountant and working with Price Waterhouse for 6 years as an auditor, I started my actuarial career at the consulting subsidiary of a Caribbean life insurer. I ended up heading that consultancy, and after it was sold to Buck Consulting became the youngest share partner at age 27. In 1997, I left Buck and founded KR Consulting. 27 years later, I am heading a passionate and diverse team of actuarial professionals providing consulting services throughout the Caribbean and Central / South America. My actuarial experience includes investments, pensions, life, general and health insurance, and social security. These days, most of my time is spent in life insurance consulting, with a lot of emphasis on IFRS 17. I have acted as Appointed / Consulting Actuary to pension plans, life, general and health insurers operating in numerous jurisdictions, including the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Panama, Barbados, Jamaica, Belize, Guyana, Suriname, St Lucia, Antigua, Anguilla, Aruba, Curacao and Trinidad & Tobago where I am based. Over the years, I have dealt with US, UK, Dutch, Canadian and international actuarial and financial reporting standards, and have become a subject matter expert in applying these standards in developing markets. Working in the developing world, where data and regulations are scarce, you are required to be innovative. You have clear sight of the importance of the actuarial profession in achieving societal goals and stable financial systems.
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.
I have been a volunteer in professional and other organizations for the past 40 years and have held leadership positions in numerous committees and boards. I am a proven team player and experienced results producer.
Society of Actuaries: Fellowship Examination Committees – Corporate Finance & Investment (1997-2000); General Insurance Reserving & Ratemaking & Advanced Topics (2015+); Curriculum Committee - Individual Life Insurance & Annuities (2020+); Ambassador (2024+)
Caribbean Actuarial Association: Board Member 2017-2023, President 2019-2021, Currently Chair of Technical Committee, Member of Life Committee (2017+), Member and past Chair of General Insurance Committee (2014+).
International Actuarial Association: Member, Insurance Accounting Committee (2016-2022), Member, Advice & Assistance Committee - Africa Taskforce (2010+). Currently Observer on the Insurance Accounting Committee, Member of the Taskforce on Sustainability Standards. Served on Working Group for “Climate Change, Insurance & Vulnerable Populations”.
Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (UK): International Assembly Member (2008-2012). The ACCA is the largest global accounting body, arranging professional examinations in >100 countries, >200,000 members, >500,000 students. The International Assembly acts as an advisory forum to provide input into strategy and development. I often volunteer to provide training for ACCA members internationally.
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad & Tobago: Council Member (1990-2015), President (2002-2005), chaired numerous committees including Education, Accounting & Auditing Standards, Investigations, Disciplinary, Appeals.
Mayaro Initiative for Private Enterprise Development: Director (2015+) award winning rural microfinance company funded by bp. Vice Chairman since 2018.
Trinidad & Tobago Revenue Authority: Director & Vice-Chairman, Chair Audit Committee (2021+)
MicroInsurance Network Member (2016+)
Congress Corporate: Strategic Leadership Team (2000+), international values- based business NGO.
Caribbean Association of Insurance Regulators: Member of Advisory Council (2010-2018)
Trinidad & Tobago Triathlon Federation: Director & Treasurer (2016-2020)
Salaries Review Commission: Chairman (2015-2018)
Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago: Director (2002-2003)
Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange: Independent Director (2002-2003)
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?
The COVID 19 pandemic was one of the biggest challenges that any leader faced in recent time. I was President of the Caribbean Actuarial Association when COVID hit, leading to the shutdown of tourism and resource-based economies throughout the region. The CAA has about 300 members scattered throughout the Caribbean, and is completely reliant on volunteers, with only one part time paid administrative staff member. So, motivation and coordination of volunteers, all of whom were grappling with their own business and personal issues, was a major issue.
The CAA had to develop new communication structures and processes for dealing with members and wider communities, including a weekly update of COVID related statistics with a Caribbean focus. This filled a significant information gap.
We reached out to stakeholders such as regional universities and governments and collaborated on COVID modelling. I led a multidisciplinary team including statisticians, epidemiologists, doctors, public health officials and actuaries in developing COVID models for one Caribbean government.
COVID made exams even harder – many Caribbean countries do not have a Prometric center, so candidates from smaller countries would fly to a larger country to sit exams. During COVID, the Prometric centers were often closed, and flying was impossible. Working closely with the examination officials of the SOA, we were able to work out arrangements for proctored examinations in the Caribbean. It was not unusual for me to have to find proctors at the last minute and reach out to the SOA because a student needed assistance and had not seen our communications. In my experience, I have seen the SOA fulfil its stated objective of increasing access to disadvantaged students.
Professionally, we had to organize discussions internally and with regulators on possible adjustments to assumptions such as mortality and lapses arising from the pandemic. There were also implications for general and health insurance, since utilization and claim patterns were very unstable, and there was little international data of local relevance. Of interest were the quite different experiences of different countries.
Financially, the CAA had to transform its annual conference to virtual. Given that this was the CAA’s major cash generating event, this was a significant challenge. Again, with some amazing teams of volunteers, it was a resounding and innovative success. Some of the ideas that were generated have since been used in much bigger conferences such as the International Congress of Actuaries in Sydney last year.
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.
The SOA’s stated goals such as “all members and candidates to feel fully included and have equitable opportunities” are clear and meaningful. However, diversity means different things in different societies.
In North America, one obvious goal is to improve minority representation in the profession. I am wholly supportive of the SOA’s high school outreach and math tutoring programs. These types of programs have high payoff in the medium to long term. However, even if you adjust for minority underrepresentation in high school STEM subjects, the actuarial profession is receiving less than a proportionate share. Part of the challenge is the competition for talented minority professionals in adjacent fields. Our firm interned the first black female South African actuarial student – who went on to do investment banking. Other challenges have been well documented, such as the lack of knowledge or mentors, which the SOA is also working on.
In other countries, the issues may be different, but there are usually significant socio-economic filters to becoming an actuary. So, the goal is to improve accessibility. Based on what I have seen in other actuarial associations, such as in the UK, South Africa and Kenya, the SOA’s current DEI plans and processes are well designed. For example, most of the major associations provide discounts for poorer countries or candidates – so does the SOA.
The key to long term success is listening – you need to really listen to people to understand their problems, and work with them to find genuine solutions. As far as I can tell, the SOA is listening to IABA, OLA, etc. and genuinely working to come up with solutions. I know the SOA has listened to and worked with us in the Caribbean to improve access to students who could not afford to fly to another country with a Prometric center.
International
The SOA has been growing internationally. How would your experiences help the SOA further the needs of the membership outside of North America?
Almost all my career has been in the developing world, even when I was working for a US headquartered international consultancy. My firm comprises remote workers from and in several Caribbean and South American countries, and we sometimes outsource work to Africa. I have been exposed to a wide variety of cultures and have participated in numerous international forums. Work and volunteer responsibilities have made me aware of the actuarial profession’s needs and challenges internationally, particularly in the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa. I have been involved in strategic planning for an international accounting association and the International Actuarial Association. I am familiar with the structure and practices of several other actuarial bodies including the UK, Canadian, French, German, Dutch, South African, Indian and Kenyan associations. I am a regular speaker at international actuarial and accounting meetings.
One of the needs of members outside North America is localization of actuarial practice. This includes such things as local or regional mortality tables. I have worked with the Caribbean Actuarial Association and SOA on the development of several local mortality tables. I am currently working with an actuarial lecturer and a judge on a project to improve the use of actuarial principles in the quantification of loss of earnings claims. This is something that developed countries take for granted but is actually quite uncommon in developing countries. Our presentation on this at the 2023 International Congress of Actuaries was one of the top 10 viewed videos on ActuView in November 2023.
I can speak several versions of English, decent Spanish, bad French, and have been studying Japanese for a few years.
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?
The SOA’s introduction of a menu of exam choices, micro-credentials and post FSA certificates is a move in the right direction. Modern learning is modular and ongoing, with team members picking up skills as required.
We face serious competition from data science, investment banking, etc for the brightest students. We had a bright actuarial student recently who wanted to do data science instead of actuarial exams. We found him projects with high data science content and a data science mentor. Eventually he decided to re-start SOA exams, with a view to at least earning the data science micro-credential. Sad to say, the profession lost him in the end. The exciting actuarial data science work he was doing helped him win a Fulbright scholarship, and he moved on to do a master’s in data visualization. But interesting work helps!
The brightest students are not interested in memorization, and that is not how we work in real life. We probably need to reduce memory content in our exams even more. Maybe even move to open book exams like the IFoA.
While we are reducing transit time through shorter exams, the media consumption and gratification cycle is getting even shorter. We cannot do exams on Tik Tok, but we certainly need to target our “marketing” differently. Our explanation of why this is a good career has to reach a generation that communicates and absorbs information in a different way.
We also need to “read the room” and understand what motivates potential future actuaries. If potential new candidates are interested in benefiting society more than just making money, then that is how we need to present the profession. We are still going to lose the brightest ones who just want to make money – investment bankers just make more money than actuaries!
Personal Experience
Share a personal experience, trait, or characteristic that will help the membership to better understand you and your candidacy.
I am committed to human development initiatives. Our profession contributes directly to financial market stability and indirectly to the wellbeing of many. Without actuarial science, there would be no sustainable pension plans, insurance companies or social security systems. Actuaries have always been in the forefront of applying risk concepts to solve societal problems, and we will continue to do so. I am proud to be an actuary, and to have a positive impact on the development of society. It would be an honor to serve as a Board Director of the SOA and participate in the continued evolution of the profession.