SA actuary achieves international milestone in risk management

South Africa has produced the world’s 1 000th actuary to formally qualify as a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary (CERA). Actuaries with this internationally recognised qualification have the sought after skill to devise and implement effective risk manage

The CERA Global Association grants accredited actuarial organisations the right to award the global CERA credential to individual actuaries who have satisfied stringent education and training requirements. Currently only the Actuarial Society of South Africa and actuarial organisations in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the US are authorised to award the CERA credential.

Themba Gamedze, President of the Actuarial Society of South Africa, says South Africa has managed to produce several actuaries with the CERA qualification in the past 13 months since the Global Association approved the South African CERA qualification.

Gamedze points out that South Africa is one of the few countries in the world able to boast actuaries formally trained in effective risk management across organisations.

"In an environment of increased focus on corporate governance, there is no doubt that awareness of risk and the importance of managing it is spreading beyond financial services. The Actuarial Society of South Africa sees this trend as an excellent opportunity to provide enterprise risk management expertise to sectors of the economy that have not traditionally been associated with the actuarial profession.”

He adds that effective risk management has become a highly desirable skill since the global financial crisis exposed excessive risk taking by organisations around the world.

“The fact that the CERA qualification is internationally recognised is critical in ensuring best practice risk management across global sectors and companies.”

The world’s 1 000th actuary with a CERA qualification is employed by one such global company. Commonly known as Gen Re, his employer operates through a network of more than 40 offices worldwide.

Schriek says he was drawn to the CERA qualification because of its unique focus on the enterprise as a whole.

“It encourages actuaries to not only master unique risk management techniques, but to also think about how the risk-orientated efforts of various sections of a business could be coordinated and harmonised.”

He adds that the CERA techniques are also general enough to find application in a much broader arena than just the financial services industry.

“I am excited about what the CERA qualification has to offer. It is a truly robust risk management credential and CERAs are well positioned to play a leading role in the future of risk management.”