Actuary: Finding Meaning in the Numbers
Bob Beuerlein can ascertain the risk of practically anything. "We are people who can look at risk, understand risk, quantify risk, and understand what to do with risk," says Beuerlein, the chief actuary at insurance giant AIG. Big companies, Beuerlein frets, don't appreciate how actuaries can help the bottom line: "I think they don't know what an actuary can bring to the table to help them out in their complex problems."
One example of how actuaries combine mathematics and business skills to accomplish something beneficial: "We quantified the risk of secondhand smoke," Beuerlein says, adding that the data led a number of cities to change public smoking ordinances. Beuerlein also enjoys knowing that he's invented a new type of insurance benefit or a twist on coverage that might help the average American. The high point of his career, in fact, came when his mother bought an insurance product he had designed. "She didn't know I had been involved with it," says Beuerlein. "She thought it was good."
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