BMath’04, Actuarial Science and Economics
About Jennifer
Jennifer Haid is a Principal in EY’s Insurance and Actuarial Advisory Services practice based in New York. She brings over 20 years of experience at the intersection of retirement, longevity and data analytics. Jenny is known for her ability to navigate complexity with clarity and for building high-performing collaborative teams.
Jenny has worked both as a consultant and in industry roles. She most recently served as CEO of Club Vita, the market leader in longevity analytics in the US, UK and Canada. Before that, she was VP of Institutional Markets at AIG where she led jumbo pension risk transfer (PRT) transactions, launched the funded reinsurance business and expanded institutional markets product set. Jenny began her career as a traditional pension actuary in Toronto and then pivoted to EY's US insurance consulting team to focus on longevity and retirement income.
As Jenny returns to EY, she is particularly interested in the insurer of the future with focus on how technology can unlock capacity, sharpen decision-making and empower actuarial teams to deliver greater impact.
Jenny is a past Board Member of the Society of Actuaries and a founding member of its Longevity Advisory Group.
Jennifer’s Leadership Perspective
As part of this series celebrating women who lead with purpose, Jennifer was invited to reflect on what fuels her commitment to authentic values-driven leadership, how her Waterloo Math experience shaped the way she thinks and the lessons that have guided her through nonlinear career paths and complex leadership moments. Her reflections offer an honest look at the motivations, experiences and principles that continue to shape her approach to leading teams and doing meaningful work.
Purpose Driven Leadership and Teamwork
I’m naturally drawn to understanding patterns and systems. I like to analyze, form a point of view and think about how things can be improved.
At the core, my purpose comes from a love of people and a desire to see them succeed. I love seeing progress and I care about leaving things better than when I found them.
I think I’m driven to lead as a way to pursue and influence those things. I apply myself to making them happen and along the way I’m often surrounded by incredible people who help make it possible and whom I can support and elevate in return. That process is deeply gratifying.
In every role I’ve had, I naturally gravitate toward building strong teams. Teams that can overperform and bring diverse perspectives to the table. I often joke that I work myself out of a job sooner rather than later because my goal is to create environments where people’s voices are heard and they feel empowered to contribute and to lead.
I love tackling complex problems, collaborating with talented people and solving challenges that have strategic impact.
How Waterloo Shaped My Thinking
I look for patterns naturally. I visualize processes, see structures and understand how systems should function. That skill was honed because of the strong technical and conceptual foundation I developed at Waterloo.
Like many of us: that foundation was forged from hours of completing proofs from first principles and spending time writing code, debugging programs and figuring out how simple scripts to larger systems actually compile and run.
One of the unique aspects of Waterloo is the environment. You’re surrounded by exceptional people who are thinking about big ideas and tackling complex challenges. Being in that kind of community pushes you to strive for excellence yourself.
Between the encouragement from faculty and staff and the inspiration of your peers, it’s an environment where you can’t help but want to do your best work. Waterloo taught me a logical, structured way of learning that aligns perfectly with the analytical work I do today and I’ve benefited tremendously from that experience.
Navigating Uncharted Paths
One of the biggest lessons I have learned over the past five to ten years is that career paths are not always linear.
When you are a student there is a clear path. When you enter actuarial science, there is another well-defined trajectory. In consulting there is also structured progression. But eventually you reach a point where you look around and realize the next steps are not mapped out anymore and you must decide them yourself.
Along the way, I have realized how important it is to think about how you show up in a space, how you bring your full self to it, who you surround yourself with and how you build your teams.
I naturally lead by consensus and value collaboration, but when you step into leadership roles consensus is not always possible. Sometimes the right decision is driven by your values. It makes sense based on your principles, even if it does not fully align with the environment you are in or with what others believe is the right path.
Learning to navigate those moments has been an incredibly difficult experience, but it has also made me anti-fragile, to borrow a phrase and ultimately a stronger and more confident leader.
Leading with Authenticity
Today I measure my confidence by the teams I am able to bring together and the work I choose to pursue. I have very little patience for anything that interferes with my ability to lead my teams, do meaningful work and live in a way that aligns with my values and the values of the people who choose to stand beside me.
There have been moments in the not-too-distant past where I’ve had to reflect deeply on these dynamics. I’ve always cared about how people react to me and whether my ideas are heard. While some of that comes from how and where I grew up, and (though I hate to admit) from navigating certain gender stereotypes; it also comes from a genuine desire to contribute meaningfully and create positive impact. Understanding these dynamics has given me a clearer sense of myself and how I want to show up in the world. It’s an ongoing process, but one that continues to shape my growth as a leader.