“The highlight of my career was my appointment as chief actuary of OdysseyRe in August 2014, ultimately fulfilling my long-term career goal.”
and is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Name: Elizabeth Sander
Company: OdysseyRe Job:
Executive vice president and chief actuary
Timeline: 2014—Chief actuary, OdysseyRe 2005—Vice president and chief reserving actuary, OdysseyRe
1998 to 2005—Senior vice president, corporate actuarial, Alea North America Company; Senior vice president, actuarial manager, North American Reinsurance Division, Alea North America Company 1995—Vice president, pricing actuary, Chartwell Reinsurance Company 1989—Assistance vice president and reserving actuary, Reinsurance Corporation of New York
Elizabeth Sander is the chief actuary of Odyssey Reinsurance Company. She joined the company in 2005 and served as senior vice president and chief reserving actuary until 2014. Prior to OdysseyRe, she was senior vice president, corporate actuarial at Alea North America Company and was responsible for the oversight of its North American legal entities, including the reinsurance, insurance and alternative risk divisions. She began her career at Reinsurance Corporation of New York, serving as assistant vice president and reserving actuary when it was acquired by Chartwell Reinsurance Company in 1995. While employed by Chartwell, she became vice president and pricing actuary. Sander is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Math and Statistics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Sander is the first woman to be appointed chief actuary for
OdysseyRe. She joined the company in 2005 and served as senior vice president and chief reserving actuary until this appointment in 2014. She has more than 20 years of actuarial experience
www.intelligentinsurer.com
Why did you choose to work in this industry initially? As an applied math major in college, I was quite determined not to be an actuary since insurance and setting rates did not sound so interesting to me. Ironically, my first interview was with the Reinsurance Corporation of New York as a property and casualty reinsurer. I had no exams at the time and was still unsure about an actuarial career. However when the chief actuary explained to me what a P&C actuary did and the impact actuaries could have on the business it sounded a lot more interesting. When I received the job offer the very same day, I simply couldn’t refuse.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? The highlight of my career was my appointment as chief actuary of OdysseyRe in August 2014, ultimately fulfilling my long-term career goal.
What has been the biggest challenge you have
encountered? I would say there were two challenges I have encountered in my career. The first was learning how to deliver bad news, knowing that it will have an adverse financial impact on the company, and that some managers will have a tendency to shoot the messenger. I will always recall having to call the chief financial officer, who was on the way to a board meeting, with the message that I needed an additional $50 million in funds knowing that one of the potential outcomes could be a decision to close my division. The second was being one of a few female actuaries or executives
in the companies I worked at early in my career. It was often my male counterparts who got invited to play golf or go for drinks and included in some of the large business deals. At some point I tried to learn golf, and quickly realised I wasn’t playing to my strengths. Instead of trying to fit in, I realised that what matter most was the work I did and the demonstrating the knowledge I had. Eventually I was the one the underwriters would go to when they were working on something particularly difficult because they knew I would get it done.
If you had chosen a different profession/career path, what would it have been? I would have enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music to become a piano accompanist.
2015 | INTELLIGENT INSURER | 87
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109