The new president of the Actuaries Institute, Hoa Bui, said she would bring a renewed focus to giving young actuaries a voice in the profession during her term as leader of the professional association.
In her Presidential Address, Ms Bui said more than half of the Institute’s members are under 35- years of age. “Young actuaries are globally connected, they are close to emerging trends,” Ms Bui said. “Engaging young members of the Institute, harnessing their energy and their knowledge, will help bring about faster change to benefit society and the profession.”
Ms Bui said the environment, climate change, and the digital and data sectors are growth areas for actuaries. “The world we live and work in is changing very rapidly and in fundamental ways,” Ms Bui said. Actuaries are turning their talent to help manage these significant emerging risks.
“We have an important role to play, to bring evidence-based recommendations to public policy across many sectors,” said Actuaries Institute chief executive, Elayne Grace. “Hoa brings business context and rigour to her leadership role. I look forward to working with her.”
Almost a third of the Institute’s members work in data analytics, an area of immense importance to business and governments of all levels when it comes to formulating public policy.
“The Institute’s expertise is routinely sought by policymakers, both here and overseas,” Ms Bui said. “As a profession we have a role to help our society deal with emerging risks such as climate change and mental health.”
During the year, Ms Bui expects the Institute to deliver major papers on intergenerational wealth and equity, and the gig economy. She also expects the profession to actively contribute to discussions on the role of data, privacy and the ethics around its use.
“Data is the future,” Ms Bui said. “If we manage it wisely, I see a world where actuaries do much more than ‘data’ work. Actuaries have tremendous skill in the design, explanation and interpretation of data and can harness its power.”
But she also warned that an ‘insatiable thirst’ for data leads to sensitive issues around the integrity of data and how data is managed and used.
“What we bring to the table, that data scientists don’t necessarily have, is the business context and the rigour with which we approach data analysis,” she said. “And of course, our professionalism.”
Ms Bui said the Actuaries Institute has built strong momentum in specific areas. The Institute built the Australian Actuaries Climate Index, a measure of the occurrence of extremes in weather, from high and low temperatures to rain fall or lack of precipitation. The Institute is a regular advisor to Treasury in areas that include superannuation and retirement policy, and consults with industry across general insurance, life insurance, banking, risk, IT and health.
Ms Bui pointed to her own story as an actuary. She emigrated from Vietnam with her family when she was 18.
She graduated from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Economics (Actuarial Studies) in 1984, when there were just six women in a class of 40 in the first year of her actuarial course.
In 2019, 33% of Actuaries Institute members were women; 670 members were working in Asia and of almost 5,400 members 1,100 were working overseas.
Ms Bui is the first Asian-born and the seventh female President of the Actuaries institute. Five of the seven female presidents have been appointed in the last 10 years.
“We are seeing an improvement in the gender diversity of the profession’s leadership. My election as president reflects the diversity of our membership and its governing body. Three of the nine members of the Actuaries Institute Council are Asian born and five have worked extensively overseas.
“This diversity is not only appropriate, it is essential if we are to succeed in a world where the major issues we face – such as climate change, mental health, and the impact of the digital revolution – are so significant that no one country can hope to solve them in isolation.”
