Actuaries across Australia are being encouraged by Actuaries Institute 2025 president Win-Li Toh to tap into their powers of collaboration to find solutions to societal problems ranging from generational inequality to cyber risks.
“Collaboration creates so many exciting prospects for us as actuaries,” said Ms Toh. “We ‘speak’ a shared, evidence-based language that can bring people with different skills and viewpoints together. And we can do more of it in the future if we truly understand the powers we have.”
Ms Toh said by pulling together different data sets and perspectives from many sources, actuaries were tackling “wicked” – or seemingly impossible – problems in a range of non-traditional fields such as data science, artificial intelligence, health, climate change and government services.
Ms Toh also said she believed actuaries needed to have “just enough humility” so they could be objective, independent and focused on the evidence as well as recognise the benefits of drawing on the expertise of others including cyber experts, First Nations leaders and climate scientists.
“Yet while holding onto this humility, we also need to stand up, look out and speak up,” she said. “To be confident about our unique skill sets; knowing we’re ready to join the dots and help shape solutions to wicked problems for our clients and our communities.”