President Elect and Vice Chair Candidate Questionnaire

Daniel Pribe, FSA, MAAA

AI / Technology

Describe your experience understanding, applying, and/or overseeing technology, particularly AI, data, and analytics to support strategy, operations, and decision-making, including how you consider technology’s limitations, risks, and impacts on business models, workforce needs, governance, and long-term growth. 

I have applied AI-assisted tools in projects involving large and complex datasets, including predictive modeling, climate analysis, and advanced methods such as Bayesian Networks. AI has supported coding, analytical development, research, and project design, while reinforcing the importance of validation, professional judgment, and human oversight.

I view AI as a tool that can enhance actuarial work by improving efficiency, expanding analytical capabilities, and enabling new forms of insight. While some traditional tasks may become increasingly automated, AI elevates the importance of actuarial judgment, strategic thinking, communication, and decision-making under uncertainty.

My experience has also highlighted the need to integrate AI thoughtfully and responsibly. This includes understanding where AI adds value, where its limitations create risk, and where human review remains essential. Strong governance, transparency, validation, and accountability are critical as organizations rely more heavily on AI-supported insights in business and financial decisions. Maintaining appropriate “human-in-the-loop” oversight is essential to managing model risk, bias, and reputational exposure.

More broadly, AI and advanced analytics are reshaping workforce needs, business models, and long-term professional relevance. I believe the SOA has an important role in helping actuaries adapt by evolving education, supporting innovation, and reinforcing the profession’s value as strategic risk thinkers and decision-makers in an increasingly complex, data-driven environment.

Board Experience and Readiness

Describe your prior nonprofit or corporate board experience and how you approach the board’s governance role (strategic oversight and mission stewardship), including how you distinguish governance from management and how you uphold fiduciary duties (care, loyalty, and obedience) in acting in the best interests of the organization. 

I currently serve on the SOA Board of Directors and have chaired both the Audit & Risk and Finance Committees, while also serving as Secretary/Treasurer and leading the Exam Exemption Task Force. My volunteer experience also includes stewardship and financial leadership roles in my parish.

My board experience has reinforced the importance of governance as distinct from management. I believe the Board's role is to provide strategic oversight, mission stewardship, fiduciary accountability, and long-term perspective by helping ensure the organization's decisions, investments, and priorities remain aligned with its mission and strategic objectives. Management, in turn, is responsible for day-to-day operations and execution. Effective governance requires collaboration with management while maintaining appropriate independence, oversight, and accountability.

Through my work on the Finance and Audit & Risk Committees, I have gained experience in financial stewardship, ERM, and strategic oversight. This has included monitoring the SOA’s financial position and key risks, including cyber, operational, and competitive risks, while helping strengthen the SOA’s risk appetite framework and risk reporting to support informed Board decision-making.

I take seriously the fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, and obedience, including acting diligently, avoiding conflicts of interest, complying with governing policies and regulations, and acting in the best interests of the SOA and its members.

I strongly believe in stewardship and in leaving organizations stronger than we found them. Effective governance requires balancing short-term decisions with long-term sustainability and ensuring the organization remains aligned with its mission and the best interests of its stakeholders.

Corporate Leadership

Describe your senior leadership experience in corporate and/or not-for-profit environments, including examples of leading people, guiding decision-making, managing complexity, and providing strategic direction while upholding strong governance standards. 

I have had the opportunity to lead teams throughout my professional and volunteer experience, often involving individuals with diverse professional backgrounds and perspectives. These experiences reinforced the importance of active listening, encouraging dialogue, and building consensus while remaining focused on the mission and strategy.

One example was serving as Chair of the Exam Exemption Task Force. The task force included academics, actuaries, and representatives from exam prep organizations. The Board asked the task force to address several complex and sensitive issues related to exam exemptions and develop recommendations for consideration. My role included facilitating discussions, engaging individually with members when appropriate, and guiding the group toward a thoughtful set of proposals presented to the Board.

I also served on the Education and Examination (E&E) and several exam-related committees where collaboration and leadership were essential to developing the actuarial exams. These environments often involved strong and differing opinions, requiring thoughtful discussion, problem-solving, and continued focus on quality and fairness.

In my parish volunteer work, I served as Chair of the Stewardship Committee and worked with the Finance Committee on school funding and stewardship support. These discussions involved sensitive financial and community considerations, requiring careful communication, empathy, and balancing differing perspectives while supporting the mission of the parish and school community.

Across these experiences, I learned that effective leadership requires collaboration, respect for diverse viewpoints, sound governance, and the ability to guide organizations through complex decisions while maintaining focus on strategic goals.

Financial Oversight

Describe your experience providing financial oversight in a corporate setting, including your ability to understand and scrutinize key financial documents and reports, identify financial risks, develop mitigation strategies, and ensure regulatory compliance.

I have served in senior actuarial leadership roles, including as Chief Actuary, where I was responsible for financial analysis, risk assessment, actuarial reporting, and strategic decision support. In these roles, I worked closely with underwriters, actuaries, financial analysts, sales, and operational leaders, while also providing guidance to senior management and Boards.

My experience includes evaluating financial performance, supporting corporate strategy, assessing capital adequacy considerations, and developing risk modeling and ORSA analyses to evaluate internal and external risks. This work required balancing growth objectives, financial stability, regulatory expectations, and long-term organizational sustainability.

I have also been responsible for reviewing and communicating complex financial and actuarial analyses, including assumptions, methodologies, and results underlying financial statements. This required careful evaluation of financial risks, understanding the limitations and uncertainty within models, and ensuring analyses were appropriately governed, documented, and communicated to support informed decision-making.

In addition, my work has involved collaboration across finance, operations, underwriting, sales, and executive leadership functions, as well as interactions with external regulators and Boards. These experiences reinforced the importance of transparency, sound governance, and clear communication in building trust and supporting effective financial oversight.

Through both my professional and Board experience, I have developed a strong appreciation for disciplined financial stewardship, ERM, and the importance of aligning financial oversight with broader strategic objectives.

Global

Describe your international experience (e.g., multinational corporations or significant projects abroad) and how your understanding of global markets, cross-cultural communication, and international business practices would contribute to SOA’s strategic positioning and international relationships. 

While my professional experience has only been U.S.-based, I have collaborated extensively with actuarial professionals from multiple countries through SOA committees and volunteer activities. These experiences reinforced the importance of diverse perspectives, cross-cultural communication, and understanding how global markets and regulatory environments shape the actuarial profession.

Working with international colleagues has also highlighted the increasingly global nature of many of the challenges facing actuaries, including AI, climate risk, evolving professional standards, and broader economic and societal risks. Although countries and markets may approach these issues differently, there is significant value in sharing knowledge, learning from differing perspectives, and identifying best practices that strengthen the profession globally.

I strongly support the SOA’s strategic objective of continued international growth and engagement. Building strong international relationships helps expand the profession’s knowledge base, strengthens collaboration, and supports innovation in actuarial modeling, analytics, and risk management. It also helps ensure the SOA remains responsive to the evolving needs of candidates, members, employers, and global markets.

More broadly, I believe international engagement helps reinforce the actuarial profession’s role as a globally relevant profession of strategic risk thinkers and decision-makers capable of helping organizations address increasingly interconnected financial and societal risks.

Not-for-Profit

Describe how, through your involvement with not-for-profit organizations, including the SOA, you balance mission-driven objectives with strategic success and operational sustainability especially in volunteer recruitment/coordination and incorporating diverse points of view.

Through my involvement with the SOA and other not-for-profit organizations, I have learned that advancing mission-driven objectives while maintaining long-term sustainability depends on collaboration, stewardship, and openness to diverse perspectives. Whether serving on the SOA Board, leading committees, or working in parish leadership roles, I have focused on creating an environment where individuals feel encouraged to contribute their perspectives and experiences.

As Chair of several committees and task forces, I have seen the importance of active listening and ensuring all voices are heard, particularly when discussions might otherwise be dominated by a few individuals. Diverse viewpoints strengthen decision-making, and effective leadership requires balancing open dialogue with maintaining focus on the organization’s mission, strategic priorities, and operational sustainability.

I view Board members as stewards of institutions that must endure well beyond any individual’s term. That responsibility requires transparency, knowledge-sharing, and a willingness to thoughtfully engage differing perspectives. Sustaining that culture preserves institutional memory, supports continuity, and reinforces long-term resilience.

One example is my work as Chair of the Exam Exemption Task Force. Although my own exam experience was many years ago, I approached the work with an open mind and an understanding that technology, education, and professional expectations continue to evolve. Rather than assuming future candidates should follow the same path I did, I focused on evaluating diverse perspectives while upholding high standards and safeguarding the long-term interests of candidates, members, and the profession.

Professional Education and Development

Describe your experience developing professional education programs for actuaries or other professionals—for example, in a university, employer, professional association, or SOA setting. Include examples where you designed, led, or managed learning programs, curricula, mentoring frameworks, or structured development pathways and how your approach was informed by how professionals learn. (1800-character limit)

Most of my SOA volunteer experience has been on the “E&E side,” Education and Examination (E&E)I began as an exam writer and grader, then served as exam chair and general officer  of the Health track. I subsequently joined the E&E Committee, including a year as General Chair, where I helped oversee curriculum and exam development across all practice areas. I served as Board liaison to the E&E Committee and was involved in efforts to evaluate and redesign the actuarial education pathway to meet the evolving needs of the profession.

This work involved more than exam development. It required recruiting and coordinating volunteers, maintaining educational quality, ensuring curriculum relevance, and helping align exam content with evolving actuarial practice and business environments. It also required balancing continuity and high standards with the need to adapt educational pathways as the profession and marketplace evolve.

A key lesson from this work is that we learn most effectively when education remains relevant, practical, and responsive to changing needs. Effective development requires rigor as well as openness to new methods, technologies, and approaches to learning.

These experiences are especially relevant as AI, analytics, and emerging techniques reshape actuarial practice. I believe the SOA must continue evolving both the content and delivery of education to help candidates and members build the technical, strategic, and professional skills needed in an increasingly complex environment.

Through this work, I also learned the importance of teamwork, active listening, and avoiding bias based solely on one’s own experiences. Maintaining high standards while remaining open to innovation is essential to supporting the long-term strength and relevance of the SOA and the profession.

Risk Management

Describe your risk management experience, including how you have identified and evaluated organizational risks (including reputational risks) and assessed or implemented appropriate risk mitigation measures. (1800-character limit)

My risk management experience includes serving as Chair of the SOA’s Audit & Risk Committee, working with organizational risk committees, and participating in financial modeling, enterprise risk assessment, and risk communication. This work involved identifying, evaluating, and monitoring operational, financial, cyber, strategic, and reputational risks.

I have found that effective risk management depends on strong communication across the organization. Risks are often surfaced through input from Board members, management, employees, regulators, and external partners. A key Board responsibility is ensuring these risks are appropriately escalated, evaluated, and incorporated into governance and strategic oversight.

My experience also reinforced the value of enterprise risk frameworks and risk registers in assessing likelihood, severity, and potential impact, as well as the effectiveness of mitigation efforts. A central task is determining which risks pose the greatest threat to operations, reputation, customers, finances, or strategic objectives.

Mitigating these risks requires collaboration across finance, operations, IT, communications, and management. Effective mitigation includes reducing the likelihood of adverse events, such as cyber incidents, and developing response and continuity plans to limit operational, reputational, and financial impacts when events occur.

I also believe transparency is essential. Boards and leaders must receive timely and accurate information to support informed decision-making and maintain stakeholder trust during periods of uncertainty or disruption.

Strategic Planning

Describe your involvement in strategic planning (including in a corporate environment), and how you have helped formulate vision, establish priorities, and allocate resources to support long-term success and effective organizational positioning. 

My professional experience includes helping organizations evaluate strategic opportunities involving new ventures, product lines, geographic expansion, and long-term positioning. This work required balancing growth objectives, financial stability, capital adequacy, operational readiness, and enterprise risk in environments with uncertainty and competing priorities.

Through these experiences, I developed a strong appreciation for translating complex data and modeling into clear strategic insights. For example, in evaluating geographic expansion, my work helped organizations assess trade-offs among growth, capital requirements, operational capacity, and long-term sustainability. These analyses informed strategic priorities, resource allocation, staffing decisions, and performance monitoring.

My strategic planning experience also includes service on the SOA Board during the development and implementation of priorities focused on optimizing the candidate pipeline, expanding global engagement, and leveraging AI. These efforts required balancing long-term objectives with operational realities, financial stewardship, and the evolving needs of candidates and members.

Across these roles, I have learned that effective strategic planning depends on collaboration across Boards senior management, finance, operations, IT, and other stakeholders. It also requires the ability to translate technical insights into actionable direction, particularly in situations where influence, consensus-building, and communication matter more than formal authority.

I believe these experiences directly support helping the SOA continue evolving as a forward-looking organization while strengthening the profession’s long-term relevance, growth, and strategic positioning.

Please share any additional information, experience, or perspective not otherwise addressed that you believe the Committee should consider in evaluating your candidacy for the SOA Board of Directors. (Optional, 900-character limit)

I genuinely enjoy being an actuary and care deeply about the SOA and the profession and its future. I also recognize that my experiences are just that—my experiences—and that understanding the broader environment in which actuaries operate requires listening to others and learning from their viewpoints and experiences.

I am intellectually curious and energized by new ideas—whether through AI, learning new analytical techniques, conversations with colleagues, or emerging approaches that expand how actuaries work. I believe this willingness to learn and adapt is essential to the profession’s long-term relevance and growth.

Most importantly, I remain optimistic and excited about the future of the profession, the SOA, and the opportunities ahead for actuaries.