Under the Spotlight with Council Member Mike Fowlds

A current Council Member of the Actuaries Institute, Mike has witnessed firsthand how the profession has evolved from its pension-dominated roots to embrace general insurance, data science and AI. His international experience across multiple practice areas brings a unique vantage point to discussions about the future of actuarial work.

For those who don’t know you, could you share a bit about yourself and your professional background? 

I grew up in South Africa and my first actuarial role was in pensions (i.e. super).

Pensions was the dominant area of employment for actuaries at the time. This is something for new actuaries to reflect on when they look at current employment patterns to decide their own career paths! While superannuation and investments is still a vibrant practice area, more actuaries are now working in general insurance and in the growing area of data science and AI. 

In the early 1990s, there was no local actuarial fellowship path. I studied the UK exams to be a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland. I then consulted for five years in Singapore and Perth, doing a mixture of insurance distribution modelling, traditional life and general insurance actuarial work and a bit of health work. There was a shortage of actuaries in Southeast Asia at the time, and generalist skills were needed.   

I had a 20-year stint in reinsurance, working in Sydney, Hong Kong and at its head office in Zurich. I worked in general insurance and life insurance, in pricing, risk management and in Appointed Actuary roles. Currently, I’m the Chief Actuary at a medical indemnity mutual in Sydney.  

What motivated you to serve as a Council Member of the Actuaries Institute?

I had been on the Data Science and AI Practice Committee for a couple of years and volunteered a few times with assignment and exam marking. However, I felt it was time to use my experience in different geographies and practice areas to give back to the profession more broadly.   

My day job requires me to present to the Board on a quarterly basis. It’s been a change, and it's good for my personal development to be sitting on the other side of the table at Council Board meetings! 

How do you see the profession evolving over time? Are there any specific areas in which you see actuaries having greater involvement and/or influence in? 

Yogi Berry once said, “It is difficult to make predictions, particularly around the future."

However, it seems clear that artificial intelligence is a potentially huge disruptive force. Actuaries are well placed to harness generative AI and improved data analytic computing power more effectively than most competing professions. At least, that is, until the computers become cleverer than us all… 

Our competitive advantage as actuaries lies in the management of future uncertain financial events, where the future payment size, timing and discount rate may all be uncertain.

This requires some mathematical skill, consideration of the regulatory and economic environment and a large element of judgment. So, I believe that actuaries will always have an important role within large institutional investors such as insurance companies, superannuation funds and banks, with their long time horizons and billions of dollars requiring prudent management. 

In addition, actuaries have a lot to offer the wider but related fields of risk management and data analytics. 

Reflecting on your career journey so far, can you share a pivotal moment or decision in your career that significantly shaped your career journey?

After working in Sydney for a few years, my employer asked if I’d like to relocate to Hong Kong, and then again three years later to relocate to Zurich. The pivotal decision was to say “yes”. 

 My children were quite young (six and nine) when we moved to Hong Kong, so the decision was pivotal for my wife and kids as well! I like to think that the experience was enriching and worthwhile for the whole family.

My daughter, Caitlin, recently qualified as an FIAA and my son, Myles, is ready to claim his first few actuarial exemptions when he starts working, so it appears they weren’t too scarred… 

What do you see as the most pressing issues for actuaries? How can the Institute help address them?

Particularly with the aging Australian population, I would like to see actuaries do more to reverse the “great risk transfer”, where risks such as investment and longevity have shifted from large institutions to individuals. 

When I was a young actuary, it seemed that actuaries occupied more of the C-suite of financial institutions than today. There is a lot of competition for these roles, of course, and incumbents need excellent management, commercial and communication ability alongside technical skills.

The Institute can help by bringing the “best and brightest” to the profession and providing relevant training. Actuaries themselves also need to seek roles outside of the traditional actuarial departments of their organisations (particularly the more commercial areas) and take a few risks! If actuaries working in Australia become content with technical work, companies will soon find cheaper offshore and AI-assisted analysts to take their place.

What should all actuaries do at least once in their life? 

Run a marathon. You’ll learn quite a lot about yourself. 

More seriously, I would strongly recommend that actuaries work in another country at least once in their life. But after they’ve experienced working with colleagues from different cultures and applied their actuarial skills to different financial environments, come back to Australia! It’s God’s country after all...

What advice would you give to aspiring actuaries?  

Frank Redington, a famous English actuary from the mid-20th century, said that “an actuary who is only an actuary is not an actuary.” He meant that actuaries need broader skills and should be leaders and advisors, not just technicians. Actuaries should think and read widely and always try to see the big picture. 

Aspiring actuaries should remain curious in the workplace and try to involve themselves in questions and projects beyond the purely “actuarial”. 

When you retire, what do you hope your legacy will be?

Hmm, that's a challenging one!

I would like to think that the work I did was of net benefit to society. Maybe it’s a long chain of effect, but running a corporate valuation department provides valuable professional stewardship. This ultimately benefits widows and orphans (in the case of life insurance) or in general insurance, it benefits real individuals facing catastrophic financial setbacks. 

I’ve also worked on so many interesting actuarial problems and had many actuarial debates with my actuarial colleagues over my 30+ year career. I hope that after I retire that one or two remembers me!