The CAS Candidate Liaison Committee (CLC) welcomed its newest members during our meeting in early December 2016. The Future Fellows blog will be profiling each of the three new Candidate Representatives joining us this year.
We have the privilege of introducing Celeste Bremen to you as one of the incoming Candidate Representatives. Celeste is an actuarial analyst at Zurich North America, and she has been appointed to a two-year term on the committee. She is excited for the opportunity to provide her perspective to the CAS as a candidate taking exams. She is also impressed by what happens “behind the scenes” in the CAS, especially in the process of creating and grading exams. I sat down with her for a brief interview following the committee meeting.
During her term, Celeste plans to bring more global perspectives to the committee. In a few months, she will be calling into our committee meetings from Brazil, as she has been accepted into Zurich’s international rotation program for the next two years. She also works with other actuaries that have international work experience. When she writes articles for Future Fellows, she hopes to draw from their perspectives along with her own.
Outside of work, she is an avid traveler, having visited countries like Iceland, France, South Korea, and South Africa. She also worked a brief stint in Colombia for a consultancy. Her hobbies include Brazilian jiu-jitsu and learning foreign languages. She is currently proficient in Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and she is always eager to learn more. Her favorite actuary is Jean Lemaire, a Belgian professor at the Wharton School who is globally recognized for his contributions to actuarial science and research.
In addition to her global interests, Celeste’s experiences back home are also quite diverse and would support the CLC’s outreach to a wide variety of candidates. She grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, in a home she fondly refers to as “the country”. Her university studies took her to the urban center of West Philadelphia, and her current and first job after college has brought her to Chicago suburbia. At Zurich, she has conducted profitability and reserve analyses for a variety of insurance markets, ranging from middle markets to crop insurance, making her keenly aware of industry and agriculture in urban and rural America.
As for what she does during her free time? She has two cats in her apartment, and she frequently travels to Missouri to visit her family and beloved dog, Reuben. Once she begins her new job in Brazil, we anticipate that she will go on many excursions throughout South America. She also reads a variety of publications, ranging from The New York Times and BBC to Buzzfeed and TechCrunch, to maintain a balanced view of the world.
Her favorite aspect of her current job is her coworkers, and Celeste is committed to representing the interests of fellow candidates to the CAS, no matter which country they are from. Future Fellows welcomes Celeste to the Candidate Liaison Committee, and we look forward to her contributions.
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