We Are Actuaries

Welcome to the We Are Actuaries Podcast, where you’ll meet leaders who use their actuarial powers to solve a range of problems and make a real difference.

We Are Actuaries is a business podcast hosted by Julia Lessing, with 94 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Julia Lessing hosts We Are Actuaries, a business show with 94 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #93

  From Actuary to Serial AI Start-up Founder with Sam Zheng

  Sep 22, 202640 minS1

  Tell us what you thought of this episode! Here's what I've learned interviewing founders: the ones who eventually build something worthwhile rarely started with a five-year plan. Sam Zheng, my guest today, certainly didn't! He trained as a pricing actuary at Suncorp and Zurich, moved into consulting at Quantium and then, in his words, "for some reason," started building AI companies. Ten years and two start-ups later (plus a 2026 Actuary of the Year award), he's still not entirely sure what that "some reason" was. In this episode, Sam and I dig into what it actually takes to build a career (and a company) without the certainty most actuaries crave. We talk about why he never had a master plan, and why he's come to see that as a feature rather than a flaw. We unpack what it means to "become a friend of uncertainty" rather than trying to control it. And we get into the practical mechanics of becoming a generalist: how founders end up thinking like a product manager, a designer and an engineer all in the same week, and why the real skill isn't knowing everything - it's being comfortable saying "I don't know." What does this mean for actuaries weighing up a less traditional path? Sam's advice is grounded in his experience: be pragmatic about your runway, and get comfortable with not knowing how it ends. Key takeaways: Ditch the master plan. Sam built his first start-up without one, and he came to see the absence of a rigid plan as part of what made the work enjoyable. Reframe uncertainty as a relationship, not a threat. Analyse it and live with it, but don't try to control it. Start building before you launch. Sam argues that now may not be the best time to start a start-up, but it is the best time to start building something, anything, that solves a problem you actually care about. Let building make you a generalist. The process of building something forces you to think like a designer, an analyst and an engineer - and that's where the real skill compounds. Know your runway before you leap. Sam's first tip for anyone considering a non-traditional path: be honest about how long you can survive without income. If you've ever felt the pull to step off the traditional actuarial path but couldn't quite picture where it leads, what would it take for you to make friends with that uncertainty, instead of waiting until you've planned it all out? Connect with Sam on LinkedIn. Click here to learn more about the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program. Read Julia’s leadership development books written especially for actuaries: For new and aspiring managers: " Aspiring Actuarial Leaders: The Modern Manager’s Toolkit " For new and aspiring senior leaders: "Senior Leadership: An Essential Guide for Actuaries" We are featured in the Top 21 Actuary Podcasts on Feedspot. Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favourite podcasts, blogs, and news in one place. Thank you for listening to the We Are Actuaries podcast. Connect with Julia and Guardian Actuarial on LinkedIn. For more interviews and articles, visit our website .

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  Episode #92

  High Performance, Human Leadership with Michael Lin

  Sep 8, 202635 minS1

  Tell us what you thought of this episode! When Michael Lin was promoted from senior pricing manager to the Head of Pricing, his instinct was to stay deeply involved in the work as a Pricing Actuary alongside his new leadership role. Over time, he learned effective leadership is more about creating clarity, empowering others and focusing on strategic impact. In this episode, Michael takes us through the leadership lessons he's picked up over ten years at TAL – not the polished, highlight-reel version, but the ones that came from the gap between what a role needed and where he actually was at the time. We talk about why staying quiet as a senior leader isn't neutral (it reads as agreement), why feedback that ticks every box in the leadership textbook can still land badly, and how a piece of direct feedback from his own team – that he'd become "the messenger, not the strategic leader" – changed how often he talks to his team and how much he chooses to share. What does this mean for anyone stepping into a leadership role for the first time? Michael's stories suggest it's less about mastering new technical skills and more about communication: listening more than you speak, repeating the why long after you think people have got it, and being genuinely comfortable being the bridge between strategy and execution. Key takeaways: · Help your team prioritise activities by focusing on the “big rocks”, · Speak up on strategy even when you think you've only got a 10% chance of shifting the outcome, but then back the final decision 100%, · Hire for capability, not for who's easiest to get along with, · Timely feedback doesn't mean immediate feedback, and remember to ask permission before you give feedback, and · Overcommunicate the why , not just the what , especially when a team is used to setting its own strategy and suddenly needs to execute someone else's. What would change for your team if you overcommunicated the why, just once this week? Connect with Michael on LinkedIn. Click here to learn more about the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program. Read Julia’s leadership development books written especially for actuaries: For new and aspiring managers: " Aspiring Actuarial Leaders: The Modern Manager’s Toolkit " For new and aspiring senior leaders: "Senior Leadership: An Essential Guide for Actuaries" We are featured in the Top 21 Actuary Podcasts on Feedspot. Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favourite podcasts, blogs, and news in one place. Thank you for listening to the We Are Actuaries podcast. Connect with Julia and Guardian Actuarial on LinkedIn. For more interviews and articles, visit our website .

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  Episode #91

  The Journey of Becoming with Liting Chen

  Aug 25, 202628 minS1

  Tell us what you thought of this episode! What's next? It's a question that can sit quietly in the back of your mind for years. For Liting Chen, it was the question that ended one chapter and started another. After 17 years building a successful actuarial career across AXA, AMP and AIA Australia, Liting walked away, not because anything had gone wrong, but because she couldn't stop asking herself "what's next?" In this episode, she talks candidly about starting a business from scratch, the loneliness of entrepreneurship nobody warns you about, and how training for her first marathon taught her more about limiting beliefs than about running. It's an honest, generous conversation about identity, uncertainty and what Liting calls "Becoming", the idea that while we might be made from the same clay, our shape doesn't have to stay the same. Key takeaways: - Recognise that actuarial skills travel with you. Liting's superpower was more than her technical knowledge, it was the problem-solving, risk-thinking and discipline that transfer to almost any path. - Expect the loss of expertise to sting. Going from answering everyone's questions to needing the answers herself was, in Liting's words, like going from the smartest person in the room to the dumbest. - Be prepared for the loneliness. Entrepreneurship is sold as freedom, but Liting found the everyday human connection of corporate life - the coffees, the gossip - was what she missed most. - Reframe "impossible" as "unfamiliar." Every new running distance felt impossible until Liting did it, and this is a lesson she now applies well beyond the pavement. - Hold onto "different shapes, same clay." However your work roles and identity might change, Liting argues the person underneath stays the same. If you've ever wondered what else might be possible for you, inside your career or well outside it, what shape might you be curious to try on? Liting Chen is an actuary and entrepreneur with 17 years of actuarial experience across life insurance and wealth management. During her actuarial career, Liting held roles across AXA, AMP and AIA Australia, progressing from actuarial analyst to management and leadership roles, with a specialty in pricing life insurance and wealth management products. In 2023, Liting decided to leave her actuarial career and explore a different path. Today, she is the founder of Plenitude Financial, working in mortgage broking with a focus on developing partnerships with organisations and communities that share an aligned value of enhancing wellbeing. Over the three years since leaving her actuarial career, Liting has continued to explore what else might be possible. She began writing and sharing more openly about her experiences, took up running despite never seeing herself as a runner and, within a year of starting, completed her first half marathon and began training for her first marathon. These experiences have shaped an idea she calls “Becoming”, remaining curious about who we are, what we are capable of, and the versions of ourselves we may not have discovered yet. Connect with Liting on LinkedIn. Visit Plenitude Financial . Click here to learn more about the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program. Read Julia’s leadership development books written especially for actuaries: For new and aspiring managers: " Aspiring Actuarial Leaders: The Modern Manager’s Toolkit " For new and aspiring senior leaders: "Senior Leadership: An Essential Guide for Actuaries" We are featured in the Top 21 Actuary Podcasts on Feedspot. Feedspot is an RSS Reader that lets you follow your favourite podcasts, blogs, and news in one place. Thank you for listening to the We Are Actuaries podcast. Connect with Julia and Guardian Actuarial on LinkedIn. For more interviews and articles, visit our website .

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  Episode #90

  High Performance, Human Leadership with Claire Greenwell

  Jul 21, 202636 minS1

  Tell us what you thought of this episode! Imagine finding out you're having twins — no history of them in the family, completely out of the blue — and deciding, right there in the ultrasound room, that your family needs to move states. That's exactly what happened to Claire Greenwell, and it kicked off a stretch of her life that would completely reshape how she leads. In this episode, Claire Greenwell joins me to talk honestly about work/life balance, burnout, and what parenthood has taught her about being a better leader. She shares the story of stepping into an acting branch manager role too soon after returning from parental leave, the burnout that followed, and the boundaries she had to set to come back from it. We also dig into how letting go of perfectionism — with her kids and with her team — made her a more trusting, more effective leader. This is a conversation for anyone who's wondered whether "having it all" is really the right question to be asking. Claire shares how she: - Treats flexibility as essential, not a nice-to-have — remote work and a nine-day fortnight aren't just what makes her job possible; they're what keeps her present as a leader and a parent. - Learned boundaries the hard way — after burning out in an acting role, Claire had to call her manager and ask to step back, and rebuild her confidence from there. - Redefined success around her team, not her own output — shifting the spotlight to her people's growth instead of her own visibility. - Let go of perfectionism with her kids first — and found that trusting her own intuition transferred directly into trusting her judgement as a leader. - Leans on outside perspective for people issues — a partner with an organisational psychology background helps her reframe problems objectively instead of reactively. What would change for you — as a leader, or as a parent — if you let go of needing to have all the answers? Claire Greenwell is a portfolio director at the National Disability Insurance Agency, leading a team of 16 people (including actuaries and non-actuaries) that specialise in providing critical analysis and advice on Scheme sustainability and reform outcomes to senior leadership, Board and government departments. Claire has worked at the NDIA for eight years and previously worked in life insurance pricing for six years. She holds a Master of Public Health specialising in research methods, as well as her actuarial fellowship. Claire is based in Brisbane where she has three young children, working part-time and primarily from home to balance her work and family commitments. Claire’s passion is building relationships and collaborating with cross-functional teams, such as frontline services, policy and other operational areas, to ensure that actuarial insights at the NDIA are meaningful and can be put into action. Connect with Claire on LinkedIn. Connect with Julia on LinkedIn. Click here to learn more about the Guardian Actuarial Leadership Program. Read Julia’s leadership development books written especially for actuaries: For new and aspiring managers: " Aspiring Actuarial Leaders: The Modern Manager’s Toolkit " For new and aspiring senior leaders: "Senior Leadership: An Essential Guide for Actuaries" We are featured in the Top 15 Actuary Podcasts here on Feedspot . Thank you for listening to the We Are Actuaries podcast. Connect with Julia and Guardian Actuarial on LinkedIn. For more interviews and articles, visit our website .

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  Episode #89

  High Performance, Human Leadership with Melinda Howes

  Jul 7, 202632 minS1

  Tell us what you thought of this episode! What if the most valuable thing you could do for your team today was to stop doing things for them? In this episode, I sit down with Melinda Howes, Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, former CEO of the Actuaries Institute, and current Group Executive, Superannuation & Investments at AMP, to talk about what three decades in the industry has really taught her about leadership. Melinda is someone who has led through some of the most complex environments in Australian financial services, and she's refreshingly honest about what she got wrong along the way, and what finally changed. We cover three leadership lessons that will resonate with any actuary navigating the shift from technical expert to senior leader. Key takeaways: · Step off the dance floor and onto the balcony. Your job as a senior leader is to see the whole picture, not to be the best dancer in the room. · Allocate a third of your time to leading your people. Coaching, developing and clearing the way for your team isn't a nice-to-have, it's the job. · Colour-code your diary. If you're honest about how much time is genuinely dead time, the picture might be sobering. · Invest in external relationships before you need them. Melinda's CEO had to give her a direct goal to get out there, and it changed everything. · Don't wait until you're ready to lead. Nobody has all the boxes ticked before they step up. Go for it anyway. Thirty years in, still being coached, still learning. What would it look like to take your own leadership development as seriously as you once took your actuarial exams? Connect with Melinda on LinkedIn. Connect with Julia on LinkedIn. Read Julia’s leadership development books written especially for actuaries: For new and aspiring managers: " Aspiring Actuarial Leaders: The Modern Manager’s Toolkit " For new and aspiring senior leaders: "Senior Leadership: An Essential Guide for Actuaries" We are featured in the Top 15 Actuary Podcasts here on Feedspot . Thank you for listening to the We Are Actuaries podcast. Connect with Julia and Guardian Actuarial on LinkedIn. For more interviews and articles, visit our website .

  ListenShow Notes

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