Grainne M.

Qualified Actuary working as Commercial Team Manager in Ireland

My career path has been relatively straightforward. I graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a degree in Actuarial Science in 2017. In summer 2018 I joined the Phoenix Group (Standard Life at the time) as an actuarial trainee on the reporting team as only my second "real job" and have been here ever since! I was fortunate to have the study support to complete my professional exams with the IFOA becoming a fully qualified actuary in December 2019. Due to this progress, I got promoted to a Reporting Actuary. Throughout 2020 I expressed an interest in learning more about other areas of the business and an opportunity was created to move to a pricing actuary role in the Commercial Team. After a short time on the team I was sure this was an area of the business I wanted to learn more about and progress in. In 2023 I got promoted to the Commercial Team Manager, this was my first time having people management responsibilities and almost a year on I continue to embrace and enjoy the challenges the new role has brought.

Commercial Team Manager, Ireland

On the Commercial team the key focus of our role is the pricing of all Irish and International business. We ensure profitability targets are met to enable shareholders to reach their desired level of returns. Of course it is not just the shareholder we consider – policyholders are at the forefront of everything we do in the Phoenix group. We work closely with the Proposition team to ensure policyholders are treated fairly and continue to receive value for money on all their products. A further interesting part of the role is we are involved in product developments and enhancements right from the initial thought stage to implementation through the IT systems. This is a challenging however rewarding part of the role offering variety as well as cross function collaboration opportunities.

Challenging, interesting & dynamic - no two days are the same!

The dynamic nature of a Commercial role in any organisation allows day to day work life to be kept interesting, no two days are the same and there are always new projects to get involved in. It is a perfect role to get an overall view of the business and considerations that are applied in decision making – I love this as it lets me see the bigger picture. In a Commercial role we never forget about the policyholder, they are central to our decisions, without the policyholders we would have no business therefore it is vital to have them at the forefront of decision making. The role itself is a collaborative role, working with key stakeholders throughout the Phoenix Group. This allows me to build relationships across all areas of the business which definitely is the highlight of the role for me!

Always ask the question & put your hand up to help out!

I was once told your network is not everyone you know but instead everyone you have helped as these are the people who are likely to help you when need be. This was excellent advice. Always help others when you have the capacity to do so, of course your day job still must be done also which is where this can get challenging but also doable! It is often tasks outside of my job description I find rewarding. On top of this it is great for both personal and career development to work across different functions when given the opportunity.

Completing all my actuarial exams within 2 years of my first sitting