Who will lead the SOA? You decide.

Candidate Questionnaire

Jon Zeu Wu, FSA 1991, CERA 2009, MAAA 1992
Retired recently
Farmington, CT
Current Board Member of the Connecticut Retirement Security Program (CRSP)

Brief description of current work:

Provide guidance and review/approve recommendations in promoting and safeguarding the retirement programs mandated for the employees from CT small businesses.

Primary Area of Practice:

Risk Management and Life Insurance

Other Areas of Practice:

Accounting & Finance, Health, Investment, M&A, and Retirement Services

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 have 30 years’ experience working in insurance companies specializing in life & health businesses, finance, investment, JV partnership, M&A, and risk management covering the US, Canada, Mexico, South America, and Asia Pacific regions:

• I started my career in the US market from life operations and grew into M&A activities over 10 years. I represented my organization to acquire companies in the US. I then led the effort to expand M&A activities over Latin America.
• The M&A experience led me to engage with a diverse Latin American community to expand insurance reaches to various countries. I worked with our business partners to set best practices and hired and trained local talents, preparing them to become business leaders in their countries.
• After 10 years in Latin America covering Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, I spent my next 10 years in Asia Pacific markets. I became a CFO, country representative, and board member for international companies. I prepared my team in the headquarters and business units for business turnaround, and the transition to new accounting standards (GAAP/IFRS) and solvency standards (Solvency II/RBC2).
• Through my assignments, I worked with local regulators and business unit leaders on moving towards the new standards, identifying potential challenges, and developing solutions. I also focused on mentorship development and workforce diversity inside the organization.

I ventured into a public policy setting environment in 2023. I accepted an appointment from the CT governor to sit on the Board for the Connecticut Retirement Security Program (CRSP). The mission is to work with my fellow CT resident representatives and reduce retirement accessibility inequity for employees working for small businesses.

I firmly believe that my diverse experiences have equipped me to engage effectively with communities and unite people toward achieving organizational goals.

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. 

My volunteer activities are classified into three groups:

Society of Actuaries

• 2023 – Present: Chair, the SOA Societal Purpose Committee
• 2022 – Present: Volunteer, Abacus Actuaries, a SOA affinity partner
• 2021 – 2022: Speaker for the ImpAct conferences and the Greater Asia Committee outreach program
• 2018 – Present: Ex-Chair, ex-council member, and current friend of the International Section
• 2018 – Present: Exam committee member for the CFE track
• 1992 and 1995: Exam Committee member for the Life/Annuity track

With my increasing involvement in SOA activities – collaboration with other professional sections such as Actuary of the Future, Entrepreneurial & Innovation, and Social Insurance & Public Finance sections, council meetings, member outreach, leader meetings, and speech engagements in the US and overseas to promote the SOA agenda, I believe that these activities and my leadership experience as the chair of the International Section and Societal Purpose Committee would help me to advance the execution of strategic plans.

American Academy of Actuaries

• 2018 – Present: Member of ERM/ORSA Committee
• 2016 – Present: Member of Solvency Committee

I worked with actuaries from various backgrounds including P&C actuaries, academic communities, and regulators to work together in recommending the best practices in solvency regulations, model risk management, liquidity management, and risk related to climate and cyber security.

Local Grassroot Actions

• 2023 – Present: Board member of Connecticut Retirement Security Program (CRSP)
• 2022 – Present: Board member and Treasurer of the Family Promise Central Connecticut
• 2020 – Present: Finance Committee member of the Winding Trails Non-profit Organization

My personal mission in local grassroot activities consists of three parts: Promote actuarial professions for societal purposes, participate in causes for promoting climate risk mitigation, and prevent family homelessness. These involvements help me to understand how to make changes from the bottom up and how to organize grassroots activities.

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 I assumed the CFO and country representative/Board roles for an International Company, one of the business units had a five-year loss record and multiple capital injections were made. Both partners were frustrated with the performance. To turn this around, everything done in the past five years had to be overhauled immediately, and the message of change had to be accepted by every level in the company. To effect change, I embarked on a comprehensive overhaul, aiming to align the entire organization toward a new direction. Here’s how I navigated this challenging journey:

• Engaging stakeholders: Engaged with both partners to affirm goals and align interests through problem identifications, proposing potential solutions and options, and providing support needed for the project team with an understanding of potential expected results. To ensure a fresh perspective, a consultant was brought in to affirm any potential remediation plans. Eventually, both partners agreed upon a value creation path within minimum capital infusion in the future.
• Building a cross-functional team: With the approval of the proposed actions, I led a small team including actuarial, finance, investment, and sales staff. A team-building event was held to foster collaboration and shared purpose.
• Data-driven decision-making: The team leveraged available data, product, and market information and made plans to minimize the sale of negative value creation products.
• Strategic Changes: We revamped our product portfolio, focusing on “target products” that aligned with market needs. Realistic assumptions were implemented, and training materials were developed for sales agents. The priority became focusing on value creation and asset-liability management.
• Communication and support: With the significant change of future product portfolio, I started road trips to various business centers to communicate the message of change, hold workshops, and provide support if needed.

In the first year, we saw the product mix change significantly and value creation indicators changed toward positive side significantly. By the end of the second year, the company’s P&L turned around and value creation increased significantly. Morale turned around.

The key take-aways were that:

• Leadership matters: Tone from the top can set an organization’s proper path.
• Communication matters: Direction must be communicated well. Employees’ acceptance and collaboration with each other are also the key to success.
• Persistency matters: Changes may get worse before getting better.

In summary, this project reinforced the power of collaboration, data-driven decisions, and unwavering commitment.

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.

As the chair of the SOA Societal Purpose Committee working with the SOA staff and member representatives, I am voicing that the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) matters and SOA’s goals on them should be:

• Begin from the top: Tone from the top is important. The board member should lead by example, continue the best practices on inclusive policies, foster an inclusive culture, and communicate to the SOA members on what we can do to promote DEI, such as promoting actuary as a profession to underrepresented communities and volunteering for DEI activities.
• Continue to partner with actuarial organizations in research programs: The board members should reach out to actuarial organizations throughout the field to share knowledge and establish joint programs and initiatives such as joint research on reducing health care inequity and prevention of AI bias.
• Facilitate and sponsor a world class mentor/mentee program: With SOA’s international expansion into the Middle East and Africa and partnerships with universities and actuarial organizations, newcomers can benefit from experiencing the SOA community and help to expand the actuarial community. I personally use LinkedIn and the SOA partner organizations to offer what I can help to the young actuarial professionals.
• Reduce the barriers to entering the actuarial pipeline for underrepresented groups: We should continue the scholarship program and exam pricing differential to help those who would like to enter actuarial programs. Meanwhile, we should also promote students’ interests in STEM program and potential to become actuaries.

In summary, my goals are to bring the solutions to enhance our DEI coverage at the home front as well as the international arena.

International

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

Based on my experiences as an expatriate covering Latin America and Asia Pacific regions, involving growth strategies for the companies I worked for, and being the ex-chair of the International Section involved in international growth strategies, I can help the Board in the following aspects:

• Solidify relationships with recently entered countries/regions, especially India, the Middle East, and Africa: Work with local actuarial communities or regulators to align interests by providing our best practices in governance, research, and actuarial education/training, and help them to build their own center of excellence. In the end, SOA can benefit from recruiting more candidates/members.
• Identify new countries’ entry strategies: Following the insurance growth of target countries, connecting local talents and universities, and being the leading organization working along with local insurers and universities will help SOA to enter the new countries.
• Expand our coverage in the countries/regions we are already in: Establish and strengthen the capabilities of SOA’s regional offices, and work with local actuarial organizations to replicate SOA activities in the US and Canada such as conferences, research, and publications for regional matters. In addition, I would like to expand the collaboration of data analytics and AI applications in those regions.
• Continue the efforts in holding/sponsoring seminars and symposiums in the international areas: I am fully supporting the SOA’s setting up seminars and symposiums at international locations. This will bring out the regions’ actuarial matters and enrich members’ knowledge and contributions.

With my involvement in SOA voluntary activities in the past and recent years and my various work experiences, I am confident that I can add value to and benefit SOA, especially in the acceleration of international growth.

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?

Change is a given, velocity is the question. Including predictive analytics into the ASA pathway and the data science micro credential is the right decision. Furthermore, I would suggest the board to consider including Data Science and AI Applications as SOA major meeting topics. We should have a platform beyond webcasts/podcasts to attract talents to advance our professions in data science and AI applications, including DEI considerations.

Meanwhile, we should also foster the skills of change management, emotional quotient, and adaptability quotient embedded into the ASA/FSA pathway process by seeing, owing, resolving, and executing them. We need to prepare our members with more comprehensive skill sets, not just skills in technical areas. I would also suggest leadership, including the Board and the section council, to collaborate with local actuarial clubs by holding town hall meetings to listen to and exchange ideas with members and candidates. When I held virtual networking events in my own professional section, I was grateful for the suggestions I heard from the section members. I turned them into webcast events or involved more subject experts for further discussion/research.

Our ability to conduct research has yielded tremendous benefits to all of us. As I mentioned on future growth in the previous section, my ideas are to:

• Deep dive into the areas we are already involved in to be the best we can.
• Utilize what we are good at to solidify our operations in the new regions – Africa, India, and the Middle East.
• Explore new contacts in new areas to assist in establishing actuarial professions.

I believe that as a board member I can work with my fellow actuaries to guide the SOA to help navigate changes and address the societal issues.

Personal Experience

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

As an immigrant to the United States, I worked hard to become an FSA. It all started from a chief actuary who cast the vote to hire me, and everything changed from that moment. Through various job rotations, I expanded my expertise from the US market to international arenas, connecting with diverse cultures and actuaries across different regions. My mission involved recruiting, training, and retaining talent, ultimately building a robust actuarial workforce in host countries—an experience I found truly rewarding.

Beyond my professional endeavors, I actively engaged in volunteer work. I collaborated with organizations like the Academy, local communities, and the SOA. Leveraging my actuarial knowledge, I emphasized the importance of financial planning and proper insurance coverage within local communities. Additionally, I participated in the Abacus mentorship program, sharing my insights and experiences with aspiring actuaries. As a chair of the International Section and Societal Purpose Committee, I advocated for the positive impact actuaries can have on society.

The seed was planted from the moment I reached out and an actuary responded. The rest is history. And yes, with your help, I could expand the work to encourage others to plant that seed and make a difference.