E47 - Bryce Shepherd - Growth of Actuarial Science Through the Lens of Data Analytics

Bryce Shephard is the Head of Strategy, Life and Health APAC at
PartneRe (NYSE: PRE-H), a global reinsurer providing multi-line
reinsurance to insurance companies with a total capital of over
$9 billion.


His responsibilities include developing and growing PartnerRe in
the Asia-Pacific region and researching and creating the market
and client strategies aligning with the company’s risk tolerance
and financial ambitions.


He has been working in the field of pricing and product
development for over 15 years specialising in the insurance
industry.


Starting as an Actuarial Analyst at Suncorp, Bryce has evolved
through various business development, strategy, management roles
across Australia, Europe, and Asia. He is also a Fellow of the
Institute of Actuaries (FIA), the highest level of qualification
attainable with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA).


Bryce also has a passion for continuous learning and currently
doing his master’s in business management with a thesis -- “An
exploration of Organisational Effectiveness – A Life Insurance
Industry Study”.


Through his research, Bryce wants to shine a light on how Life
(Re)Insurance organisations are influenced by innovation,
culture, leadership, knowledge management, and distributed teams.
Based on these research findings, he crafts ways to increase
company effectiveness for the benefit of their employees,
shareholders, and ultimately customers.


He is also working on underwriting customer segments using
alternative/proxy risk factors that eliminate the need for
traditional risk scoring and lengthy statistical analysis. Also,
it enables a simplified and seamless digital application process
for insurance customers.


In this exclusive episode, Bryce and Jason discuss:


How actuaries have been using data analytics for centuries
before data science became the sexiest job in the world.

How professionals in the insurance industry can upskill into
the field of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence
and machine learning.

Real-life applications of these technologies in the insurance
and reinsurance industries.

How insurers are using data analytics and techniques of data
collection to better serve their customers.

Role of the reinsurer in the insurance industry.

How PartnerRe is developing digital technologies.

Why and how the dynamics between insurer and reinsurer are
blurring and changing due to the increased use of data
technologies.

Bryce also shares with us deeper details from his thesis
findings on HR, people analytics, hiring, and team
development.

Evolution of the use of data in insurance – from static to
dynamic underwriting.

Place and advantage of being a reinsurer – global data
availability, experience, and insights.

What is pre-underwriting and how data analytics enables the
practice of pre-underwriting.

Also, how pre-underwriting benefits insurers and customers.



If you want to know how data works in the insurer and reinsurer,
this is the episode you should not miss.


BusinessAnalytics, InsuranceAnalytics, ActuarialScience,
CustomerExperience, DataScience