From the Founder of the Club

Our History

Shirley Hwei-Chung Shao

January, 2007

The Chinese Actuarial Club (CAC) was formed and registered with the Society of Actuaries in 1987 It is fantastic that the Chinese Actuarial Club is going into its 20th Birthday! Today, it is growing stronger with many more members and activities.

Let's walk on my memory lane; it all started in 1987 after I moved to Washington, DC where there were a few Chinese actuaries. Prior to this move, I lived in Hartford and later Boston, where I met many Chinese actuaries. In Washington DC, I really missed the cultural connection and started dreaming about creating a network that would connect the Chinese actuaries beyond Washington DC and may even be around the world? (Remember Internet did not exist!)

I made a cold call to Mr. Yuan Chang, Yuan was the first American-Chinese FSA whom I respected as the leader of the Chinese actuaries Yuan graciously agreed to meet with me and lent his support after our meeting He had made every attempt to attend the CAC events and generously share his wisdom Yuan also had the foresight in establishing a SOA office in HK to serve the Chinese actuaries in the Great China Yuan's lifetime contributions to the Chinese actuarial community and insurance markets in the Greater China region had influenced so many young actuaries and made significant impacts on their professional lives He will always live in our memories.

CAC was then established in my own home with some of the helping hands from Prudential where I work We've started to use newsletters as the primary way to connect Chinese actuaries who were scattered geographically all over the world Many of us worked weekends and nights to assemble, edit, affix stamps, mail, handle return mail, etc I would like to give special thanks to Ching-Meei Chang, Larry Yi (and his then high school son), Meichao Chiang for their contributions to CAC in the pre-internet ages.

In 1999, the Chinese Actuarial Club went high tech and started its own Website!!! (http://www.chinese-actuary.org) The birth of this Website allowed us to communicate through geographical and time zone differences in a matter of a click! Our website was created by Mike Leung (who volunteered to learn how to establish a website from a book called "Web Design for Dummies"), Nian-Chih Yang (then Editor), Lina Cheung and Ching-Meei Chang.

In 2007, we will get a new look and added functions to our website. The team who made this possible is Jennifer Lin (project manager), Mike Zhang (technical liaison), Shu-Yen Liu, Eric Wang, Miao Chan and Carol Kocher We are also fortunate to work with a team of website experts who are not actuaries, they volunteered to put together a wonderful CAC website, our special thanks to Kuan Wan's team.

In recent years, CAC has been organizing events at the SOA annual meetings; they provided opportunities for members to meet face-to-face in sharing experience We have been very successful in offering professional seminars that are targeted for the needs of the Chinese/Asian actuaries, along with great dinners, and of course our new found talents from the American Idols at Karaoke singing!

Geographically, CAC has also established regional presences: New York (President Jennifer Lin), Boston (President Carol Kocher) and Chicago (President Nain-Chih Yang) We would like to create one for Hartford in the near future Our New York events have attracted many successful and fun events with 100+ attendees I would like to take this opportunity to thank our supporters from several actuarial recruiting firms who co-sponsored many of our events They provided opportunities for the Chinese actuaries to better understand skills in demand, the employment markets and job positions Our thanks also go to SOA staff for their extensive assistance.

I would like to say that we should all be proud of our members who have contributed so much to the actuarial community in the past and we look forward to have more professional participations from the Chinese actuarial community Currently, we have Bosco Chan and Cathy Lyn serve in the SOA's International Section, Joanna Chu in the Actuary of the Future Section, Mike Y. Leung and Vicent Tsang in the Financial Reporting Section As CAC becomes stronger and better, I encourage everyone to joining in the volunteering work from our growth in events and activities We would like to share CAC's successes with you in the next however many years Its 20 years now, please come and join us in the non-profit professional organization for the benefit of all actuaries.

Our Mission

The Chinese Actuarial Club (CAC) is a professional and social non-profit organization dedicated to serving members who are interested in development of financial markets in the North America and emerging market in Asia. Its mission is to provide networking opportunities across borders, sharing experience in the international community, and offering continued professional and personal development programs to enhance members' actuarial career growth.

To accomplish this mission, the Chinese Actuarial Club has established three objectives:

• Help members learn more about the actuarial profession and examination curriculums: 
  CAC helps college students to better understand the actuarial profession; CAC provides network for those who seek advice on the actuarial examinations; CAC offers people connections to the actuarial employment opportunities.


• Provide members with opportunities to share work knowledge and career challenges:
  CAC provides a forum to share professional knowledge and challenges If combined, CAC members have many areas of expertise – sharing expertise would promote and enhance CAC members' growths As Chinese actuaries working in the North America and other parts of the world, CAC members have unique set of challenges with cross culture and corporate mentality CAC provides a platform for members to share, learn, grow professionally and know about each other personally.


• Exchange actuarial principles and practices with actuaries in Asia:
  We promote exchanges of professional principles and standard practices in the Chinese actuarial community globally

CAC has implemented these strategies by volunteering resources through different means over the years, the advanced technology has made it possible and easier for communication The Chinese Actuarial Club is a non-profit professional organization built and managed mainly by volunteers CAC's successes depend on the efforts from volunteers.