Last year, we accomplished a lot and hit a lot of milestones. I’d like to thank Roosevelt Mosley, Kathy Antonello and Victor Carter-Bey for their leadership as well as the volunteers, staff and leaders who contributed to these accomplishments. We ended the year with a very memorable Annual Meeting in Los Angeles: celebrating milestones (#CAS10k), welcoming new Associates and Fellows, engaging future actuaries (#CASStudentCentral) and gathering as friends and colleagues. Discussions at the Annual Meeting were some of the most enriching, involved and polite debates spanning differing views, such as how consumers, regulators or insurers viewed California risk or whether exams today are more difficult than years past. The meeting ended with a panel of California industry leaders sharing very different perspectives — punctuated by hearty applause from the crowd.

Take the Property Casualty Predictive Analytics (PCPA) requirement, for example. For years, there was interest in putting together a basic education requirement that would address, in a hands-on way, what modern actuaries need to know. However, the number of diverse views on requirements multiplied by the number of discussions needed to move forward stymied any significant progress. It took conscious collaboration — including teamwork, trust and mutual respect — to get a working group to focus on the core product and critical issues, like the candidate experience and value to employers, and to enable the working group to move forward faster and announce the PCPA requirement.

The PCPA is a win, however, we have faced some challenges. We’ve seen efforts falter because input was not broadly sought; those who were involved collaborated but did not have the benefit of critical feedback from important and diverse stakeholders. But we learn from our past and carry on striving to improve.

Two of the key themes of the coming year for me are collaboration and diversity. Both must be present for us to continue to succeed.

The accomplishments in 2023 give us great momentum to move closer to our envisioned future where “CAS members are sought after globally for their insights and ability to apply analytics to solve insurance and risk management problems.”

Here are a few of my priorities as we move into 2024.

First, we need to update the CAS Strategic Plan. The current plan consists of three pillars:

• Pillar 1. Building Skills for the Future.
• Pillar 2: Diversifying the Pipeline.
• Pillar 3. Expanding Globally.

These pillars helped guide the CAS for the three years from 2021 through 2023, inspiring multi-year efforts like the Admissions Transformation Plan. We’ve extended the Strategic Plan through 2024, giving us time to thoughtfully update the plan for 2025 through 2027. In addition, we’ll be able to leverage member input from the Quinquennial Survey, as well as feedback that we’ve received during the years our Strategic Plan has been active.

Two of the key themes of the coming year for me are collaboration and diversity. Both must be present for us to continue to succeed.

Second, we need to ensure a smooth launch for the PCPA and begin planning the next set of admissions and educational initiatives. To help guide our planning, we’ll be undertaking an Actuarial Professional Analysis (APA). The APA seeks to describe our profession through essential standards and requirements for practice that can be translated into a weighted set of content areas for assessment and can incorporate skills needed for future actuaries. This ambitious undertaking will be led by staff and volunteer actuaries, including a panel of actuarial subject matter experts and will incorporate feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including candidates, practicing actuaries, employers (current and prospective) and regulators. This feedback will be useful, in particular, as we think about training an actuary who is prepared for the future.

Third, we need to implement the recommendations made by our Governance Task Force with input from a governance consultant. In addition to advising on governance best practices, this task force has been hard at work researching current processes, policies and procedures, and identifying opportunities to improve, document and communicate them. Some best practice improvements are already in flight, and executing the task force recommendations will be a priority for the CAS Board, leadership and Executive Council.

Finally, there are three other tactical areas that we need to work on in the coming year. First, we have to strengthen sourcing actuarial students — our early pipeline. Second, we should continue to focus on volunteer satisfaction and member engagement. The culture and existence of the CAS relies on volunteers, and our community is formed by engaged members — who else, for example, will ask hard questions at our Town Halls with CAS Leaders? Finally, we need to connect with our members working internationally as well as peer actuarial organizations. There’s much we can learn about actuaries abroad, including how our profession should be involved in issues like climate and banking.

There’s plenty to do. However, we have great momentum and a group of dedicated leaders, volunteers and staff. In addition, we are all teaming up for the benefit of the CAS, our members and our community. If any of the work above resonates with you, there are many ways to get involved. I’m optimistic that, in a year, we’ll look back and once again be proud of the milestones we’ve achieved.

Finally, I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve as your president and look forward to our many accomplishments together. Go CAS!