2025 President-Elect and Vice Chair Candidate
Ian Duncan, Ph.D., FSA, FIA, FCIA, FCA, MAAA
Credentials: FSA 2002, MAAA 1992, FCA 2015, FCIA 1984, FIA 1982
Country: USA
Practice Area: Health, Education
Employer/Current Work: University of California Santa Barbara
SOA Board Experience: 2012-2015 and 2022-2025
Video
Candidate Messages
Message One
The President of the SOA is the face of the profession. The job description includes:
- Public face of the SOA in all major markets and serve as primary external spokesperson
- Encourage collaboration among actuarial organizations
- Travel & meeting commitments
Actuaries face unprecedented challenges from increased competition from other professions and from AI. Actuaries must continue to distinguish themselves based on a strong combination of technical and leadership skills, professionalism and innovation.The SOA strategic plan (which I helped develop) emphasizes growth: grow the pipeline of young, enthusiastic actuaries, grow internationally and embrace AI.
I have been an actuary for 50 years, practicing on four continents, and founding or co-founding five start-ups. I have volunteered for the SOA for 30 years in numerous roles, including two board terms. I publish, speak and travel extensively around the world (nearly seven million flown miles on American Airlines) and am a fellow of three other actuarial organizations. If you would like more details, please watch this video: watch this video or visit my LinkedIn page.
I am ready to apply my demonstrated history of achievement to the leadership of the SOA and would be honored to have your vote.
Message Two
See my election video on YouTube or my LinkedIn page for my history of actuarial, entrepreneurial and academic leadership.
The proportion of SOA members who vote is low; If the election turn-out remains low, you risk losing your franchise and ability to influence the leadership and direction of the organization.
I am ready to apply my demonstrated history of achievement to the leadership of the SOA. I would be honored to apply my experience as President-elect of the SOA, so please vote!
Questionnaire
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE: Provide a brief description of your professional background and the type of work you have performed. Please include SOA and non-SOA volunteer and governing experiences including collaborative leadership. 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 trained as an actuary in London (FIA), requalified in Canada (FCIA) and as an FSA by mutual recognition after 17 years in the US. I started as a healthcare actuary (Aetna); after 10 years I switched to Management Consulting (PwC) specializing in healthcare strategy and enterprise systems implementation. I co-founded a healthcare predictive analytics company with a colleague and pioneered disease management through an SOA grant that later became my textbook on Chronic Disease Programs. In the late 1990s I began to volunteer in the Marketing & Distribution section (newsletter editor), Education & Research Section (Chair) and was one of the founders and chair of the Smaller Consulting Firms Section (now the Entrepreneur/Innovation section). My work in healthcare led to volunteering forthe Disease Management Association of America (DMAA) and a national profile in the economics of managed care, as well as research and publication. I was elected to the SOA board in 2012 at a time when the board had28 members. I served on the Cultivating Opportunities Committee where I pushed for the introduction of Predictive Analytics for candidates and was significantly involved in designing and implementing the PA Exam (grading all but one exam since its introduction). I also served for 2 years on the Marketing Committee and was responsible as Chair for gaining approval from the profession for the SOA’s logo design. After I sold a second analytics company, I took a position as a professor at UCSB. As an academic I both publish and speak at different universities, most recently in Asia (Conferences in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and China). My extensive board experience includes Government (Massachusetts Connector), Corporate (Vitality Inc. Board Actuarial Committee (Chair), Clover Health Inc. (an MA plan), Arbital Health Inc. and Academic (healthcare entrepreneur organizations at Stanford, UC San Francisco, Texas A&M and UCSB). I am very familiar (having served on the Strategic Planning Task Force) with the Strategic plan: we must increase and speed-up the pipeline, grow globally where there are viable opportunities (my international background, particularly recently in Asia is relevant) and continue to monitor AI (my 30 years of experience in predictive analytics and machine learning makes me uniquely qualified in this area).