Meet the actuaries

Rheia Khalaf

ASA, CERA
Senior Actuarial Analyst
Ernst & Young, Inc.

As a student, Rheia Khalaf knew she liked math, but didn't yet know if she could apply that passion by becoming actuary. Once she figured it out, she knew she'd found her career path. "When I was in school, like most first year students, I didn't really know what an actuary was or did," she recalls. "What attracted me was the possibility of applying mathematical knowledge to insurance, finance, and other concrete examples, with a potential of helping financial institutions. It gave mathematics a scientific as well as human aspect."

Now, Rheia is a senior actuarial analyst at Ernst & Young. In this role, she provides support for auditors concerning their review of actuarial reserves, in line with accounting guidelines. She also provides consultation to insurance companies in areas including valuations and pricing, support for the set-up of new insurance entities, design of client specific actuarial models, risk modeling and solvency calculations, and mergers and acquisitions.

In recalling her most challenging professional experience, Rheia says it was helping to develop a reinsurance company in Switzerland. "I was creating an internal model for solvency calculation for a multinational insurance company," she said. "In Switzerland, companies must adhere to the Swiss Solvency Test. Large companies must create their own model to cover all aspects of their assets and liabilities. It was a challenging task to be aware of all products and lines of business, of all assumptions and interactions between them, of stochastic interest rate projections, and much more." But, she also says it is her most rewarding experience. Ultimately, the client was impressed with the detailed and thorough models that they presented, which were specifically tailored for their business.

Rheia says her position in Switzerland also created once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. "The team in London required some additional resources and they recruited people from all over Europe to be part of this team," she recalls. "The project lasted one month, had tight deadlines and many late nights, but I learned a lot and met a lot of interesting people."

Rheia completed her bachelors of science in actuarial mathematics, with a minor in business studies at Concordia University in Montreal. She then pursued a masters of science in quantitative finance with a specialization in risk management through a masters program jointly offered by the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. As a student, Rheia's favorite course was Market Consistent Actuarial Valuation taught by Dr. Hans Buhlmann because it clearly presented the interrelation and interdependence between finance and actuarial mathematics. "It introduced me to replicating portfolios and asset and liability management and further developed and covered aspects from both my bachelors and masters degrees," she recalled.

Now well aware of the many ways she can apply her passion for mathematics as a practicing actuary, Rheia sees even more opportunities for tomorrow's actuaries than when she was first attracted to the profession. "The field of risk management is growing, especially with the latest news in the financial markets. Actuaries have all the tools necessary to study risk," said Rheia. "I think actuaries will become more visible, and will take on roles that they have not before. They will compete more and more with financial engineers and investment managers with an added value which is their strong knowledge of the liability side of the balance sheet."