Episode 40: Actuaries as Communicators with Emma Vitz

“One of the principles that I always remind myself of when I'm communicating is to put the audience ahead of yourself. So we should think about *who's my audience* and *what do they need* and *how can they understand what I'm sharing with them*. And we should put that ahead of our own need to prove our smartness or how much we know.”

**Emma Vitz,**
Actuarial Consultant

Emma Vitz is a consultant working in general insurance pricing, natural perils and climate risk at Finity Consulting. Originally from New Zealand, Emma studied Psychology and Statistics before pivoting into an actuarial career.  She has a strong interest in communicating complex topics in an interesting and accessible way for a broad range of audiences. Following on from the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, Emma appeared on live TV and radio to discuss the impact that the largest non-earthquake disaster would have on insurance affordability and availability. She has also written data journalism pieces on everything from housing to healthcare and truancy. Her data visualisations have been presented to the New Zealand Housing Minister on live television and viewed hundreds of thousands of times online. Emma has also presented at a variety of conferences in New Zealand, Australia and in international forums.

In this interview Emma shares:

Her unconventional path into actuarial science,
Why she has spent so much time focusing on communication skills, and what other actuaries could gain from developing similar skills,
How she applies actuarial thinking to her career more broadly

Connect with Emma on LinkedIn.

More of Emma’s work