The Actuary of the Year award has been won by Jennifer Lang in recognition of her role in assisting understanding of COVID-19 pandemic impacts.

Ms Lang, a Pacific Life Re Australia board member, has led the Actuaries Institute’s COVID-19 Working Group, which has brought together more than 80 actuaries as volunteers to assess the potential effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

“The group has provided strong guidance to the profession in unprecedented times, across a very broad range of practice areas,” Actuaries Institute CEO Elayne Grace said. “It has resulted in 17 pandemic briefings and more than 70 articles.”

The Actuaries Institute award is presented each year to a member who has made a notable contribution to the community and has brought credit to the profession.

Ms Lang has more than 25 years’ experience in financial services and has held senior positions at NAB Wealth, KPMG and Deloitte.

The institute says she has also been noted for her role as a mentor to younger professionals and for her blog Actuarial Eye.

“As a group we spent a lot of time this year helping members and the community make sense of the pandemic and the economic crisis that has followed,” Ms Lang said. “We bring data-driven thinking; we follow evidence to help determine a course of action.”