30-second Bio

• 🇲🇾 Malaccan. Malaysian.
• 🎓 UCLA '25, majoring in Financial Actuarial Mathematics
• 🚀 Co-founder of Project Astra and UCAS Lab
• 📊 Leading student actuaries via Bruin Actuarial Society and Malaysian Actuarial Student Association
• ❤️ Giving back to Malaysian students via NAMSA and USAPPS
• ✍️ Refocusing this website as a medium for me to explore the economic policy space by learning in public and documentation.

About Me

As a person with multiple (but often overlapping) interests, I thought it best to break down this section based on various aspects of my life.

The following part of this page is admittedly self-indulgent. I do hope that by detailing my experiences, it would you to draw parallels or pull inspirations from, or perhaps both.

📊 Actuarial

• Over the past 3 years, I've explored the actuarial and risk management industry.
• For the past 2 summers, I've interned at Allianz Life Malaysia.
  • My first stint was under the Structured Internship Program and I was attached to the Corporate Pricing Department.
• Within the Corporate Pricing Department, I conducted a Climate Risk Stress Testing (CRST) in compliance with Bank Negara Malaysia's requirements for financial institutions by 2024.
• I also supported projects such as the risk calibration for the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) and preparing slide decks for the Risk Management Working Committee (RMWC).
• My work included the unique opportunity to work directly with the Appointed Actuary in structuring a bancassurance deal and conducting COVID-19 Ex-Gratia Financial Impact Assessment.
• My second stint was with the Pricing Department.
  • I conducted an independent research project on Generative AI opportunities for insurers in the SouthEast Asia region. The project includes carrying out competitor analysis and formulating a financially and operationally de-risked AI adoption strategy into Allianz.
  • In order to ensure that low-hanging fruits were reaped, I compiled a Prompt Library so that my colleagues could immediately start adopting ChatGPT and Bing Chat into their workflow.
  • The research was first presented to the entire Product Division of Allianz Life. Then, I was requested to also present to the Pricing Department and Sales Management Department of Allianz General.
• I truly enjoy solving case competitions and actively joined them while I still qualified as a participant. Among my favorite were:
  • The London School of Economics (LSE) Actuarial Society Case Competition on Climate Risks
    • This exposure enhanced my work at Allianz's Corporate Risk Department when conducting the Climate Risk Assessment.
    • Our team was selected as a Finalist.
  • The California Actuarial League (CAL) Case Competition on Pension Funds
    • I utilized the analysis skills from my first stint at Allianz Life to assess liquidity risk and conduct death experience study.
    • We also had to ensure that the dataset was credible and was required to provide recommendations to the pension fund on how to avoid risks.
    • Our team travelled to UC Berkeley for the Finals and won the Retirement track.
• Through the Bruin Actuarial Society, I work directly with the UCLA Mathematics Department and Financial Actuarial Mathematics Faculty to upskill and professionally develop the actuarial community in UCLA. The responsibilities include:
  • Developing and conducting technical workshops such as Excel, VBA and R
  • Sitting on the Judging Panel of the Annual Case Competition's Preliminary Rounds
  • Organizing the annual Career Fair and Spring Banquet
• I am leading the Malaysian Actuarial Student Association's pilot efforts to expand internationally and engage Malaysians studying Actuarial Science abroad.

📈 Economics & Policy

• At Allianz, I had the opportunity to see the actuarial work behind its Rahmah Insurance products. These were micro-insurance products targeted at the B40 community.
  • This catalyzed my interest in the Ekonomi Madani framework and I started looking into the policy research space.
  • On this website, I am pushing myself to learn more efficiently about economics and policy by learning in public on this website.

💻 Data Analysis

• At the UCLA Library, I work as a Lead Data Analyst.
  • I use Excel, VBA, Python, R, SQL and Flourish for my data analysis and data visualization work.
  • Every quarter, I relay my analysis findings to the Library Management and translate them into actionable business insights that guide decisions regarding inventory updates, loaning policies and others.
• Machine Learning Project under the supervision of Professor Michael Murray
  • Utilized ML Algorithms such as KNN, Linear Regression and Random Forest models to predict whether a particular song made it to Spotify's Top 200 Charts, given various variables such as tempo, release date, valence, chord etc.
• GitHub repository can be found here.

🚀 Projects

Being in different communities allows me to develop a keen sense of what is needed in that community and identify any opportunities that ought to be fulfilled. As such, one of my main non-academic interests is to build products that move the needle for members of that community.

Below are a selection of projects that I love the most:

• USAPPS is a two-day annual workshop where Malaysian students currently enrolled in colleges in the United States provide guidance to Malaysian students who are planning to apply for higher education in the U.S.
  • I led USAPPS 2022 Core Committee and we managed to secure more than USD10K from Education USA and The Biji-Biji Initiative.
  • This was also the first in-person workshop post-COVID and we challenged ourselves by hosting a workshop both in Kuala Lumpur and in Sabah.
  • To streamline the facilitator registration process, we built a Job Board which clearly outlines the requirements for each role. This reduces the friction for sign ups and we saw an increase of 25% as compared to pre-COVID numbers.
  • This was also the year that we published the 1st Edition of the The USAPPS Journal, which was a guided journal that helped applicants craft their Personal Statements.
• UCAS Lab is a start-up that is a UCAS equivalent of USAPPS.
  • We recruit current students at top UK Universities (Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial, King’s & UCL) to help more than 200 UK Universities Applicants craft their application across 4 Cohorts (each lasting 4 weeks).
  • I led the Actuarial Science/Statistics Lab and provided constructive feedback on their Personal Statements, Admission Test and Admission Interview preparations.
  • Its day-to-day operations are overseen by graduating seniors at KYUEM, who receive close mentorship on how to run a business and to create valuable products effectively.
  • The start-up was founded in 2021 and still runs till today.
• Project KYVID was my first ever non-profit initiative.
  • This project was conducted during the earlier parts of the COVID-19 lockdown and aims to fundraise to help Malaysians who lost their livelihoods due to the pandemic lockdown.
  • The project was split into 2 phases:
    • Phase 1 involved collecting donations from Scholars and College Clubs. It ran for about a week and managed to collect RM 5175.00 in contributions.
    • Phase 2 is the collection of donations from the Student Population. Over the period of about 2 weeks, an additional RM 6415.00 was collected.
  • In total, the Project ran for about three weeks and raised RM 11590.00. All proceeds were directed to The Lost Food Project.

🎨 Web & Graphic Design

• I love beautiful web and graphic designs - very much inspired by Walter Isaacon's Steve Jobs biography.
• Websites that I've built are:
  • This website
  • UCAS Lab
  • Project Astra
  • NAMSA
  • KYUEM Student Council
  • Genieus Mart (Archived)
  • Hype Streetwear MY (Archived)
• I mainly dabble with Instagram graphics:
  • UCAS Lab
  • Project Astra
  • USAPPS\

🧭 Life Compasses

This section gives you a little insight into the core values and principles that I hold closest to heart and I consciously try to apply them in everything that I do. It also serves as a litmus test to determine our compatibility in working together. If we are of the same frequency, I'd be more than eager to know more about you and perhaps even work on something together further down the line!

Work Ethic - Outwork Everyone.
Kindness - Be a little kinder than necessary.
Consciousness - Question your thought processes constantly and keep your ego in check.
Practical - Never give less than your best but if things turn out the other way, don't lament. Learn.
Growth Mindset - Be grateful and appreciative of where you are at but never, never be blindly complacent. Actively seek opportunities to grow and improve.

💭 Things that resonate with me

This is a section where I shortlist the top 5 things that I've had the privilege to stumble upon that have resonated deeply with me, stuck with me and has shaped my thought process throughout the years. It ranges from books to quotes to music and videos.

1. If by Rudyard Kipling
2. "It's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice." - Dwayne Johnson
3. Kobe Bryant's Mamba Mentality
4. Dwayne Johnson's Two Hand Philosophy
5. "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how" -Friedrich Nietzsche