Description: 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Reinsurance Conference. This one day industry meeting hosting delegates from North America and beyond will be held in Toronto on April 13, 2016 under the theme "ReDefining Leadership".

Description: “It’s Not About You” encourages the reader to take a broad perspective with respect to career advancement opportunities and to have an appropriate elevator pitch for all seasons. It suggests that anyone can develop the superior communication skills and strong presence required to deliver the most effective elevator pitch. It talks about the importance of focusing on the other person--their needs and the way they make decisions, rather than the speaker’s skills and experience. Finally, it recommends appealing to both emotion and logic, taking into consideration how the other person is more likely to make decisions.

Description: Summary of the upcoming activities for the Smaller Insurance Company Section in 2016.

Description: The authors identify several vulnerabilities of actuarial leaders and offer tips on how to address these weaknesses and strengthen leadership skills.

Description: Tells a story of an actuary, Thomas Sutton, who is working with Orange County, California on developing a bankruptcy settlement.

Description: Describes how the mantra of 'tax cuts will pay for themselves" along with the political unwillingness to cut spending (extant since the 1980s), has led to this increasing debt problem in the U.S., reaching $17 trillion at time of writing. Other countries are behaving in a similar fashion, and it can be only a matter of time before the globe may reach another crisis, this time based on excessive government debt coupled with fewer interested investors.

Description: The author compares team leaders to lessons learned on the TV show Restaurant Impossible.

Description: Actuaries must be able to present compelling arguments to win over their audience. For the first time, they may be managing a staff looking for direction, making recommendations to senior leaders, or trying to persuade non-actuarial colleagues who see the world differently. This series of articles is intended to educate young actuarial professionals on key business influencing skills that will be beneficial in the near term as well as throughout their careers. Part 1 is focused on leading and influencing a team.

Description: SOA Board liaison outlines progress made by the new Social Insurance & Public Finance section since its inception.

Description: This article discusses how to manage another person's level of productive tension. This is one of the most critical skills of being an influential leader. This guidance is based on the Changeworks and MasterStream systems developed by T. Falcon Napier.