Five minutes with Jennifer Lang

Q. What inspired you to become a volunteer?

I’ve been volunteering off and on with the Actuaries Institute since I qualified as an actuary a long time ago. Long enough that my first volunteer committee was helping develop the Life Insurance capital standards before LAGIC! It was a great way to get to know people in my field and from outside my own company.

Q. What is the most rewarding part of being a volunteer?

For me, the most rewarding part is meeting and working with other actuaries – you really get to know someone quickly when you are working with them! I also love the feeling of making a difference to the wider society – the Actuarial Hackathon is a good example of that.

Q. What is one piece of advice you would give to other members who are considering volunteering?

Volunteering is really helpful professionally, as well as a way to give back to the profession. Think about an area that you are really interested in – you will meet other actuaries who are just as interested in it as you, and you will learn a lot from them. And every committee I’ve been on needs people at all levels, don’t be put off if you are new to the profession.

 Q. How has your career informed your work as a volunteer?

I think volunteering for the Institute has been a really important part of my career, I’ve learned a lot professionally from different groups I’ve been a part of and got to know a lot of seriously smart actuaries!   Right now I’m involved in quite a few different committees because I have some time right now to give back to the profession. As well as the COVID-19 Working Group, I’m Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group, I was Chair of the 2021 All-Actuaries Virtual Summit Organising Committee, and I’m a member of the Climate Change Working Group.  Each one of those has a wide variety of people with quite different experiences both in the specific fields we are talking about and more generally, and I learn from all of them. 

Q. What has been your greatest achievement in your time volunteering with the Actuaries Institute?

I’m most proud of the COVID-19 Working Group that I chaired last year – we accomplished a huge amount in a very short amount of time, and most of the people working on it were very busy in other parts of their lives, because of the pandemic.

For more stories on our volunteers, read up on  ‘Five minutes with Bruce Thomson’, ‘Five minutes with Douglas Isles’ and ‘Five minutes with Catherine Robertson-Hodder’

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