Celebrating Asian Heritage Month
From Malaysia to New Jersey: A career conversation with Kenny Kan, FSA, MAAA
May 2025Photo: Adobe
In recognition of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, I am delighted to share this interview with Kenny Kan, FSA, MAAA. Originally from Malaysia, Kenny has risen through the actuarial profession to executive leadership positions and is now the Chief Actuary of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the state’s largest health insurer with 3.7 million members.
In this Q&A, Kenny shares his experiences in adapting to the U.S. workplace culture, his views on leadership, and his advice for younger actuaries who hope to advance to leadership positions.
Can you tell me about your background, and what drew you to the actuarial profession?
Kenny Kan: Certainly. I was born in Malaysia. When I came to the U.S., I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. (Hook ’em Horns!) I have always been good at math and passionate about the business world. I got both of my degrees in accounting, since I viewed it as the language of the business world. However, I discovered actuarial science in my last semester of graduate school and completely fell in love with it. I also saw there was a greater demand for it in Malaysia and considered moving back.
Can you talk about the first few years of your career as a newcomer to the American business environment?
Kenny: After I finished school, I spent my first few years working for two major employee benefit consultants. During this time, I encountered two major struggles.
- Language barriers. Things would sometimes get lost in translation. I sometimes misunderstood the directions I was given at work, ideas that others expressed and even accents. I had trouble understanding jokes people told (e.g., “I never went to prom…”) and expressing my own ideas effectively to others.
- Cultural differences and workplace norms. Compared to what I was used to, there was more focus on individuality. I dealt with discrimination, unconscious bias and prejudice. People made assumptions about what I was good at based on my background without getting to know me. I was sometimes viewed by others as being too formal or too passive.
Luckily, I had some good mentors during this time in my career—my managers or more senior-level people at the companies I worked for. They got to know me, appreciated my differences and valued the perspective I brought to the table. To this day, I am thankful that they welcomed diversity of thought. I also adapted and learned from mistakes I made during this period.
Pivoting to the more recent part of your career, can you talk about the leadership positions you’ve held over the last 15 years or so?
Kenny: Over the past 15 years, I have been the chief actuary of three companies: CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Humana and, currently, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey. I am also a Commissioner of MedPAC (Medicare Payment Advisory Commission), which advises Congress on Medicare issues. I am the only actuary on the Commission.
Regarding my first Chief Actuary role at CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, it was a challenging time. I had worked on Wall Street for the previous three years, so I had to catch up with what was going on in the actuarial field. I also had to build relationships with my new department and other stakeholders across the company, as well as resolve some business situations. It took some time and was challenging, but ultimately, everything came together well.
How has your leadership style evolved over time?
Kenny: Over time, I have become passionate about servant leadership. In this leadership style, the leader listens actively, leads by example, shows empathy, and is more about empowerment and engagement, rather than command and control.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve received in your career from a boss, mentor or colleague?
Kenny: Actually, there are two things:
- Always have a growth mindset. Never stop learning.
- Take risks in your career. I have worked in two nontraditional roles, one as an equity analyst and the other as a financial controller. Both roles gave me new perspectives and made me a better actuary, a better investor, a better businessperson and a better thinker.
Are there any cultural traditions you would like to share that you incorporate into your work life?
Kenny: Yes. Three things come to mind:
- Strong work ethic.
- Resilience in the face of hardships.
- Valuing different perspectives. Malaysia is a multiracial society, so I learned early that including others brings more perspectives to the table and leads to more well-rounded decision-making.
Are there any specific things you learned as a result of your Asian heritage that helped you to achieve success in your career?
Kenny: Humility and a beginner’s mindset in solving business problems. Adaptability, in being willing to make mistakes and then improve. Staying curious and being willing to say, “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out.”
Are there aspects of Asian culture you wish were more recognized and understood in America?
Kenny: Yes, there are a couple of things. First is an emphasis on harmony and conflict avoidance. This can be seen in how disagreements are handled. It may seem passive, but it’s really a way to build relationships. It could promote a better approach to conflict resolution in America. It’s not about avoiding conflict, but about resolving conflict in a respectful and empathetic way that prioritizes relationships. Second, valuing collectivism vs. individualism. Collectivism is the idea that the well-being of the group is paramount. In collective societies, people are taught to act in ways that benefit the whole group. We try to reflect this in the way we run the town hall meetings in our actuarial department—the younger associates plan the topics, present or request speakers, and basically run the show. Engagement is very high.
What advice would you give to young actuaries who hope to reach leadership positions like the ones you have held?
Kenny: I have four key pieces of advice:
- Emphasize leadership skills and not just technical expertise. Leadership is about influencing and motivating others, communication and emotional intelligence.
- Understand and leverage cultural strengths such as hard work, respect for hierarchy and collaboration. Build on your strengths and recognize places where biases can be barriers to career success.
- Speak up and share your ideas. Don’t be shy during meetings. You may be tempted to hold back out of humility, but to grow in leadership, you must show that you can assert your ideas confidently.
- Learn to navigate corporate politics. Understand how decisions are made, and the power dynamics and organizational structures of your company. This will help you navigate the corporate landscape.
What are some things others in the actuarial community can do to make room for the strengths of those with Asian heritage, beyond celebrating AANHPI Heritage Month?
Kenny: There are several things the actuarial community could do to open the doors for more AANHPI leaders. One is overcoming the “bamboo ceiling.” This refers to invisible barriers that prevent Asians from rising to leadership positions, despite their hard work and qualifications. This is driven by cultural stereotypes, lack of mentorship, biases and the perception that Asians are better suited for technical roles than leadership positions.
Another avenue is through mentorship programs that pair junior actuaries with managers and directors at their company and allow them to participate in a rotational program. We do this at Horizon; this can be a catalyst to help actuaries develop soft skills and give them exposure to different parts of the company.
The profession can also increase awareness of the actuarial career path to expand the pipeline. More outreach programs could target high schools and colleges in AANHPI-dense parts of the country, such as Los Angeles. An Asian Actuarial networking group such as Abacus Actuaries has also been helpful with this type of thing.
Last, we in the profession can adapt our tools to AANHPI realities, which are heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. Actuaries use data, so why not use data that reflects experiences? For instance, when developing compliant health products and services for a specific Asian community, use experiences specific to people from that ethnicity, which is not just AANHPI, but specifically Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese and so on. Different AANHPI ethnicities have different cultural norms. It would be good to develop a product that reflects the key things that matter to a specific group.
It’s an honor to be invited to share my perspectives and experiences, and I hope this can help others in their career journeys.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries or the respective authors’ employers.
Copyright © 2025 by the Society of Actuaries, Chicago, Illinois.