Camille Van Vyve
05 Jul 2021
Meet Vincent from easyvest
Vincent Veerman, 32 years old. Residence: Brussels. Title: Actuary.
How is starting a new job in the midst of COVID?
This is weird! My interviews were obviously done online and since I started in mid-April, I haven't seen any of the team physically yet. I think you lose the big picture of a business when you work from home and personally I miss not being able to chat with people, over coffee, about professional matters and the like. But still, in most cases including mine, the distance doesn’t prevent you from doing your job.
Actuarial work is quite a specialized profession. What do you like about it?
After my studies as a management engineer at Solvay, I felt like I could do a bit of everything but nothing in particular, that I hadn’t developed any specific expertise. Consulting and auditing did not appeal to me, I wanted to do something more technical. As math, finance and stats were my favorite courses at Solvay, I got into actuarial training. It was an ideal extension for me.
Before joining easyvest, you were based in Thailand for AXA. What do you keep from this experience?
I grew up in Yemen until I was 13, where my parents were expats. I have fond memories of that - there weren't all the problems the country is experiencing today - and the urge to spend part of my life abroad as well. After 3 years at AXA Belgium in the risk management and finance departments, I had the opportunity to go and do the same job in Bangkok, where one of my close colleagues was also leaving. It was a great experience, in a very pleasant city to live in and where the people are incredibly kind.
Why did you leave AXA?
After two and a half years there, my Belgian colleague and I decided to leave AXA to embark on something more entrepreneurial. Back in Belgium, I therefore started to work as a consultant in an actuarial firm and to develop a software engineering project in parallel with it. I had already learned a bit to code for specific aspects of my actuarial work, and I continued to train myself, with books and tutorials.
When do you decide to join easyvest?
It was a true coincidence. At the end of January, I came to the end of my consultancy assignment and I was looking for a pension solution for my girlfriend working as an independent contractor. I did a simulation on the easyvest site, Corentin called me back, we talked and a few weeks later, Matthieu contacted me to find out if I would be interested in contributing to the project as a part-time actuary.
What does your job at easyvest consist of?
I share my experience in the insurance world in terms of products and the modeling of those products. As a regulated institution, we must accurately calculate our capital needs and model our future income; this is an important part of my job. More generally, my role is to put in place good governance practices concerning risk management at easyvest.
What motivates you about this project? And in life?
In this project: to be part of an ambitious team, with great desire for change, in a sector lagging behind digital and dominated by big players. In life: entrepreneurship, dance, music and sport!
Note: This article was written when Easyvest was authorized and regulated by the FSMA as an agent in banking and investment services.