I'm happy to be a candidate for president-elect. As a candidate -- and certainly if I win -- I intend to actively communicate with the SOA membership and other members of our profession. You deserve to know what I'm thinking -- and I want to know what you're thinking, too.

All of the PE candidates taped 3-minute speeches that appear on my webpage, as well as the SOA website. In mine, I emphasize two priorities:

1. Expanding SOA's research capabilities, which have been historically underutilized. SOA research has expanded actuarial science and assisted actuaries world-wide with experience studies that enjoy unmatched credibility. We must build on our well-deserved reputation for unbiased rigor by providing rapid-response research to support public policymakers and others. This is perhaps the most important way that the SOA can serve the public.

2. Public policy is, of course, the responsibility of the American Academy of Actuaries in the U.S. and the CIA in Canada. (The SOA is a global organization, but 70 percent of its members are in the U.S. and nearly 20 percent are in Canada.) I am the only one of the four PE candidates who has served in responsible, VP-level positions in three actuarial organizations: the SOA, the AAA and the CCA. That experience has allowed me to build relationships with the staffs and elected leaders of all three -- and of other organizations, too, with which we cooperate in many ways. I intend to strengthen those interorganizational ties through even more cooperative endeavors and shared infrastructure. Poll after poll has shown that eliminating organizational redundancy -- though not necessarily organizations! -- is important to nearly all actuaries. That will be a focus of my presidency.

More generally, we need to continue shining a light on the fine work of our profession. A past president of the SOA, Walt Rugland, hit the nail squarely on the head: "Ask an Actuary." That should be the basis of our image building.

Don