Pictured left to right, Ken Leonard, Tom Myers (CAS President) and Jim Leonard
Pictured left to right, Ken Leonard, Tom Myers (CAS President) and Jim Leonard
Ken and Jim Leonard are both actuaries who likely have broken career and family statistical rules. How many brothers choose the same career path, choose to live together as roommates in college and, some fifteen years later, choose to study together to earn their Fellowships in the Casualty Actuary Society (CAS)? The Leonards surely are a statistical anomaly.
Ken Leonard ’93 expressed his belief that the average citizen probably has no idea what an actuary does, unless they live in the Bloomington-Normal area. He said he usually gives the quick, understandable answer, “We determine the cost you pay for insurance using math and statistics.” He said from the consumer’s point of view, “there is not a whole lot of glory in our profession, but for the clients we as actuaries represent or for the companies we work for, our expertise is a necessity.”
Jim Leonard ’94 said: “Actually, I think the career is what you make of it. You can choose to be in the background and ‘crunch numbers’ all day, or you can be more proactive and search out the interesting aspects of the job. I find that the latter suits me best. I enjoy the day-to-day interactions with my underwriting counterparts and other non-actuarial people.”
Ken is a consulting actuary who works primarily as a ratemaking and reserving actuary at Towers Perrin in Bloomington, and Jim is an assistant vice president and actuary at CNA Insurance Companies in Chicago. During the spring 2008 exam sitting, both Ken and Jim passed the CAS Exam 8 to attain their Fellowship. Both have studied together for other actuarial exams as well as bounced ideas off each other for the most recent exams. The brothers shared a room in their home town of Schaumburg and continued that relationship as roommates at Illinois State.
Ken was recruited for the track and field team at Illinois State as a high jumper, but converted to a decathlete during his freshman year. He was Missouri Valley Conference Champion in the decathlon in 1991; runner up in 1989, 1990 and 1993; MVC champion in the 4×400 meter relay in 1992; and still holds the second-best score in school history in the decathlon.
When Jim also chose Illinois State, Ken said it was a natural choice to share a room. “We had a lot of common friends and ate about 95 percent of our meals together,” Ken said. “With both of us majoring in mathematics, we studied together in the Bone Student Center Prairie Room, where we got Mountain Dew refills from Garcia’s pizza for 50 cents.” Jim said rooming together “seemed like common sense as we shared just about everything, and there was no reason to have two of everything. Plus, we probably became better friends as we got older. Part of our daily routine was eating together in the cafeteria, which allowed us to catch up after many long days.”
Ken met his wife, Lana (Davis) Leonard ’93, at Illinois State, where she was a softball player. Jim and Ken then started attending home softball games, and even grilled hamburgers for Coach Melinda Fisher for a softball family get together, and Ken and Lana watched many movies in Capen Auditorium.
Jim and Ken said the actuarial exam process is very difficult. “There are nine exams now, with upper-level exams requiring as much as 400 hours of self-study preparation,” Jim said. “The exams are the path to being credentialed and considered an ‘expert’ in the actuarial community.” Ken added that attaining the Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS) designation is expected in most actuarial careers and involves completing seven exams, a course on professionalism and three years of actuarial related experience. The Fellowship designation adds two more exams, and Ken said some devote 500+ hours to studying for those exams.
Both brothers volunteer on CAS committees, including the exam committee. Ken said volunteering is a way to meet continuing education requirements, network with other actuaries, promote the actuarial profession and help focus the CAS direction.
Ken and Jim have a cousin who also became an actuary and a brother who is a civil engineer. They said their familial math genes were a mystery, but noted that their father is a manufacturing engineer. Ken said there were three Conant High School teachers who made math enjoyable, Bill McCauley, Luann Ligmanowski and Bill Amoruso as well as two Illinois State faculty members, Kenneth Berk and Kwang-Chul Ha.
Jim is married to Sandra, who is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and who he met when they both worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and they have two children, Ethan (5½) and Ellie (2½). Ken and Lana have two daughters, Machayla (11), who just started playing volleyball for Illini Elite and MacKenzie (8), who takes tennis lessons. Both girls play travel soccer for Illinois Fusion. Before becoming an actuary, Ken was an assistant track and field coach at Illinois State and coached multiple events for the women’s and men’s track and field teams at Illinois State. Jim’s hobbies mostly revolve around family, but now that he has some free time to devote, he is choosing to pursue cooking and grilling. The brothers coach their children’s soccer and basketball teams. Jim said the families are “pretty much all consuming to us,” and he is looking forward to spending time with his wife and kids who supported him through the long exam process.
