A requirement to speak up, or to blow the whistle, is part of the ethical, regulatory or professional responsibility of an actuary in most countries. This can cause situations where an actuary can feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they blow the whistle, they can face significant personal hardship. And if they fail to blow the whistle, they can face professional sanction. Preparation and education are essential for actuaries so that they have the wherewithal to both protect their career and, if necessary, be able to speak-up effectively to meet their professional responsibilities, rather than becoming a needless martyr.
Organised by the EAA – European Actuarial Academy GmbH.

The web session is suited to all actuaries who feel they might face a moral dilemma where they might need to speak up or to blow the whistle. We designed it for actuaries, recognising the professional and ethical challenges that actuaries face.

Technical Requirements
Please check with your IT department if your firewall and computer settings support web session participation (the programme Zoom is used for the web session). Please also make sure that you are joining the web session with a stable internet connection. 

The purpose of this web session is to prepare actuaries for situations where they might need to speak up or blow the whistle.

A natural part of professional actuarial work is dealing with conflicts and dilemmas. The web session is a mixture of theory, practical examples and lessons from others who have blown the whistle.

The web session will include breakout sessions to discuss materials covered and to enable participants to share their own experiences.

The language of the web session will be English.

Colm Fitzgerald FSAI FIA
Colm Fitzgerald is an Assistant Professor in Actuarial Science in University College Dublin, where he lectures on professionalism and ethics, amongst other subjects. He has presented on professionalism topics at several actuarial conferences, including the EAA Data Science & Data Ethics conference, the Virtual Colloquium of the IAA and the Annual Convention of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland (SAI). He has run ethics webinars for ActEx in the US, delivered in-house ethics education for actuaries in a commercial consultancy, and has run CPD professionalism skills training sessions for the SAI. He has a history of being an active volunteer in the actuarial profession. He is currently the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries’ (IFoA) representative on the Education Committee of the AAE. Previously he was a member the Education Board of the IFoA and has held various other education roles in the IFoA over the last 14 years. He is currently doing a PhD in character development.