President Elect and Vice Chair Candidate Questionnaire

Si Xie, FSA, CERA, FCIA

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 led several AI and technology initiatives from concept to scale, balancing opportunity with risk management.

In China, I launched the first "digital+human" hybrid financial advisory service for one of the largest banks in the world. I built the needs analysis and recommendation engine and oversaw the digital transformation. Technology works best when it empowers human advisors, not replaces them. For risk management, we embedded best practices: rigorous user testing, model risk governance with independent validation, phased launch, ongoing bias detection, and transparent client consent protocols. This shaped my view that technology must serve people first.

Today, as CEO of Reimaginerisk, our food-as-underwriting platform uses an AI-powered health risk assessment engine. While behavioral data helps predict risk dynamically, I stay mindful of limitations. Pragmatically, I work with data scientists and clients to audit for fairness, monitor model drift, ensure data privacy compliance, and maintain human review for edge cases.

Technology reshapes business models and workforce needs, but everything starts with people. My approach is to identify real pain points, integrate customer insights, and refine through feedback. As an expert in design thinking and agile methodology, I focus on building solutions that deliver impact. I lead with empathy, fostering inclusivity, collaboration, and accountability so teams feel empowered to challenge the status quo.

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 served on the SOA Board from 2022 to 2024. Early on, I had to pause my natural instinct to solve operational problems. I learned to ask: "Does this align with our mission? Are we considering long term impact? What does the management team need from us to succeed?"

I co-authored SOA's 2025–2027 Strategic Plan. I pushed for governance modernization, including streamlined committee structures and clearer accountability. I also advocated for stronger regional offices because our global membership needs local support, not just translated exams. Being on the ground internationally, I brought real-world insight into the boardroom, ensuring decisions reflected what members in Asia, Latin America, and beyond actually experience.

As the Director and CEO of an insurtech and a manufacturing company, I worked with the respective advisory boards to set mission and strategy for each organization. I also learned to protect the mission while managing day-to-day work and to translate that mission to all staff. I have introduced governance frameworks and practices from my SOA experience into my current roles.

Strong governance asks for discipline, humility, and a long view. I have practiced that in my board service and in my current role. I would bring that stewardship and purposeful approach to the SOA Board.

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.

When COVID locked down China, my team had just six months to launch a new financial advisory service. Team members were spread across multiple cities. Our VPN could not even handle basic logins. Morale was fragile. Many longtime employees feared failing and hesitated to commit.

As business lead, my first decision was to protect my people. I took full accountability for any setback so they could focus on delivery, not blame. That small act of trust rebuilt our spirit. Then I made a tough call: transition from colocation to fully remote operations. We introduced daily standups for alignment, evening check-ins for leads, and biweekly decision days to keep leadership responsive. I also stepped into every white space no one else would touch, expanding my role to keep critical milestones moving.

We launched on time. That experience taught me that compassionate leadership and clear decision-making can turn crisis into breakthrough.

In another chapter, our main investor passed away suddenly. Funding stopped overnight. As CEO, I had to decide quickly: shrink or risk everything. I chose empathy first, reducing team size with honest conversations and respect. Then I pivoted our product direction entirely, leading an intense search for new partners. Within months, we secured bridge funding and emerged leaner.

Both moments reminded me that leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about making decisions with heart, clarity, and courage.

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.

As CEO of an insurtech and a manufacturing company, financial oversight is my daily responsibility. I review monthly profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports. I have learned to look beyond the numbers to the assumptions and trends underneath.

One profound test came when our main investor passed away suddenly. Funding stopped overnight. I immediately assessed our financial risks: cash runway, outstanding liabilities, and upcoming payments. I cut non-essential costs, renegotiated vendor terms, and reforecast our budget weekly. Within months, we secured bridge funding and stabilized.

In my manufacturing role, I oversee cost controls and working capital. When the Iran conflict escalated this year, I implemented a mitigation strategy for rising raw material costs and proactively looked for alternative, cheaper suppliers. I also ensure our tax filings and audit preparations meet all regulatory deadlines.

I approach financial oversight with curiosity and care. I ask questions like: Where are we exposed? How do we know our numbers are right? That mindset helps me protect the organization's long-term health.

For the SOA Board, I would bring the same disciplined yet compassionate financial stewardship, always focused on sustainability, transparency, and mission.

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.

I was born in China, hold a degree from Oxford University, and have worked for multinational companies in Canada, Hong Kong, and Mainland China on projects that required teams from different regions to collaborate closely.

One experience shaped my cross-cultural approach. In China, I learned that a signed contract is just the beginning. Trust comes from small, consistent gestures such as sharing tea, listening to personal stories, and showing respect over weeks, not hours. That changed how I lead global teams. I now listen first, adapt my communication style, and never assume what works in one market will work in another.

As an SOA Board member (2022–2024), Career Development Community Vice Chair, International and Actuary of the Future (AOF) Section Council member, and volunteer in curriculum and exam development across North America and Asia, I bring on-the-ground insight from Asia and Canada into boardroom discussions. I also bring SOA and North American perspectives to local actuarial organizations.

Looking ahead, I want to help the SOA expand global influence by building deeper partnerships with regulators, tech firms, and business leaders. I want to strengthen international collaboration, candidate pipelines, and member engagement. My work in China and Canada, together with my current role as CEO of an insurtech, has prepared me to lead this effort.

What I bring is a global perspective, a proven track record of innovation, and a deep commitment to serving our members. 

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 more than a decade of SOA and local actuarial association volunteering, I have learned that mission, success, and sustainability can coexist.

I helped build the first CFE track, serving on both the curriculum and exam committees. We created a vision to prepare actuaries for any industry and pioneered MBA style textbooks and exam questions. Volunteer recruitment and coordination require humility. As CFE Curriculum General Officer, I recruited actuaries from insurance, banking, and technology. I learned to ask: what do you care about? Then match that passion to a concrete task. People stay when they feel their contribution matters. We also used conferences and networking meetings to recruit like-minded volunteers, and we created our own onboarding training materials to help volunteers understand and buy into our vision.

Incorporating diverse points of view is not just a value; it is a strategy. On the International Section Council and Actuaries of the Future Council, I have listened to young actuaries and global members challenge old assumptions. I have advocated for regional voices on the SOA Board. I also bring experience from the Actuarial Society of Hong Kong and CIA, where different regulatory and cultural contexts shape priorities.

I balance mission and sustainability by always asking: does this serve our members long term? And I keep diverse perspectives at the table by creating space for quiet voices to speak. That is how I would continue to serve the SOA.

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.

I have developed professional education programs across multiple organizations. At the SOA, I helped build the first CFE track on both the curriculum and exam committees. We created a vision to prepare actuaries for any industry, pioneering MBA style textbooks and exam questions that emphasized case studies and applied thinking over rote memorization. This design was informed by how professionals learn best: through realistic problems, immediate feedback, and connection to their daily work.

As the only member of the Actuarial Society of Hong Kong Exam Task Force with prior experience in creating curriculums and exam questions, I helped create the society's first ever exam. This meant defining learning objectives, designing question formats, and setting passing standards from scratch.

I have also served as an exam writer and grader for the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and the SOA CFE track. Grading hundreds of responses taught me where candidates struggle and how to write questions that fairly assess both knowledge and judgment. I brought those insights back to curriculum design.

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. 

Risk management sits with every department and every person within an organization. It is not just a board conversation.

In my manufacturing role, when the Iran conflict escalated this year, I identified rising raw material costs as a critical risk. We evaluated our exposure, then implemented mitigation: securing alternative suppliers, staggering purchases, renegotiating contracts and shortened price guaranteed period. I also communicated transparently within the organization about potential margin impact.

On the SOA Board, we faced a delicate reputational and strategic risk. We were under external pressure to expand our credential mutual recognition program beyond the existing three actuarial associations. But e realized that diverse quality and maturity across associations could create loopholes. Candidates might game the system by taking easier exams elsewhere and converting them into FSA credentials. After failing to find a cohesive approach that met all needs, we made a hard choice: we closed the existing program without replacement.

Protecting the quality of the FSA credential mattered more than expanding recognition.

That decision taught me that risk mitigation sometimes means saying no to growth. I learned to weigh long-term trust against short term opportunity. I would bring this same principled risk lens to the SOA Board.

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.

Strategic planning, to me, is not a static document. It is a living conversation between vision and action.

At my manufacturing company, we set out to transform the business by unlocking new value, driving growth, enhancing efficiency, and improving customer satisfaction. Instead of a top-down plan, I used design thinking and agility to cocreate our path.

First, we formulated our shared vision through collaborative workshops with clients and employees. We listened to real frustrations and wild ideas. Everyone had a voice. That empathy became our north star.

Next, we established priorities together. We built an agile backlog, ranking initiatives by client value, strategic alignment, and available resources. The team debated tradeoffs openly, and the full team voted on top priorities. We created ten small pods, each owning a strategic initiative. With iterative budgeting, we reallocated funds as we learned. If a pod discovered a smarter path mid sprint, we pivoted without red tape. Experimentation was encouraged, not feared.

Even in this early stage, we have built a culture of trust, adaptation, and shared ownership. We are now better positioned to respond quickly to market changes and customer needs. I would bring this same collaborative, iterative approach to strategic planning on the SOA Board.