Prior experience in the industry and at both a boutique consultancy and a big four firm – what he calls “the best of three worlds” – gave Yoeri the perfect skill set to come to Oliver Wyman and set up the Actuarial team in the Amsterdam office. “Building something is giving a lot of energy. However, the international structure of Oliver Wyman combined with the business model and the return to the focus of actuarial are ingredients for a very long-term relationship,” he notes.
Yoeri specializes in supporting insurers as well as reinsurers, with a content focus on product development, Solvency II, IFRS 17, reinsurance, and actuarial valuations for M&A. He has built an especially deep expertise in P&C insurance. “Some may tend to state that this field is boring. However, I can be extremely passionate about my work! The fact that an insurer’s core business is the trade of risks makes it extremely interesting,” he says. Yoeri’s vast understanding of insurance, and more particularly, the mathematics and statistics behind it, is of huge value to his teams.
In short, Yoeri’s role is to help clients in risk management mainly from a quantitative angle, but with a strong qualitative angle as well. “We bring strategic oriented actuaries that have both deep expertise and are able to bring a helicopter view. The international network we bring makes sure we are on top of the latest developments, have expertise from all relevant perspectives and can deliver the required value to our clients.” he notes. Key projects include the modelling of risks, underwriting solutions, actuarial process optimizations, and pricing and reserving strategies. “Our work is mainly on a quantitative basis, but often also related topics are the challenges where we deliver solutions to (mostly) insurers,” he explains.
My personal ambition is to bring colleagues and clients to rise above themselves. If people that I work with are able to get the best out of themselves, my work is the most rewarding.
Yoeri sees digitization as an urgent challenge for many clients. “We see a lot of pilots, but not enough real implementations. Currently, data challenges take most time and budget away from further developments,” he says, adding that another challenge is to keep a beneficial position in the potential future ecosystems. “How will clients shift their needs in a world where they order “security” or “mobility” (e.g. including carsharing, insurance, gasoline costs etc…)? What will the position of the insurer be?”
Yoeri holds diplomas in Financial Econometrics and Actuarial Science and Mathematics, both from the University of Amsterdam. He has a post master in Actuarial Science and is a Qualified Actuary (AAG) and member of the Dutch Actuarial Association.