Left to right: Jordan Gerry, Barry Franklin, Michael Benarroch, Jeff Strong, Jeffrey Pai, Ben Li, Xuemiao Hao, Stuart Tisdale
Celebrating Actuarial Student Achievement
The Fish Dinner, an annual tradition, is hosted by the University of Manitoba Actuarial Club student group
Congratulations to the Actuarial students honoured with awards at the 54th Annual Fish Dinner on October 15. Hosted by UMAC (the University of Manitoba Actuarial Club), the Fish Dinner celebrates student achievement in the Asper School of Business’s Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) program, the U of M’s Bachelor of Science (Honours) Actuarial Mathematics program and the Bachelor of Science (Honours) Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics joint program.
Xuemiao Hao, director of the Warren Centre for Actuarial Studies and Research, presented the awards:
- Kathryn Qin Actuarial Scholarship: Margaret Krysko (Asper)
- William and Olive Humphrys Scholarship for Actuarial Mathematics: Eric Christianson (Science)
- Murray Segal Memorial Scholarship in Actuarial Studies: Yinan Wu (Science)
- Winnipeg Actuarial Club Scholarship: Cedric Gousseau (Asper)
- Direct Entry Scholarship in Actuarial Mathmatics: Molly Smyth (Asper)
- James C.H. Anderson Memorial Actuarial Aboriginal Scholarship: Dylan Allary (Asper)
- Great-West Life Actuarial Career Scholarship: Sergiu Buda and Neil Redpath (Asper)
The Fish Dinner, a distinguished tradition of the U of M’s actuarial programs, introduces students to potential employers in the actuarial profession. Over 100 students attended, along with 15 faculty members and 55 guests from industry partners and supporters, including Allianz, Aon Hewitt, Eckler Ltd., The Great-West Life Assurance Company, Manulife Financial, Mercer, New York Life Insurance Company, Sun Life Financial, Towers Watson and Wawanesa.
The event’s keynote speaker was Barry Franklin, FCAS, MAAA, CERA, Senior Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer, Zurich General Insurance North America. Mr. Franklin spoke about the role pure data scientists and actuaries will play in the swiftly evolving world of predictive analytics, a component of the insurance industry.
Michael Benarroch, dean and CA Manitoba Chair in Business Leadership, Asper School of Business, and Ben Li, associate dean, Faculty of Science, brought greetings. The emcees were UMAC co-presidents Stuart Tisdale and Jordan Gerry, who announced the creation of a new UMAC case competition that will “give students a chance to develop some presentation and actuarial problem solving skills, to better prepare them for their careers.”