Empowering Growth Through Mentorship
Meet Leylya Biktimirova
Senior Manager Property & Casualty - Technical, Allianz Asia Pacific
"I joined Allianz back in 2012 when I was finishing up my master’s degree in mathematics and Programming. It was the very first year that the actuarial pricing department was established, and I was fortunate enough to be a part of it.
Now, the interesting thing is I that I didn’t specialize in actuarial mathematics, but it didn’t matter because we were all learning together. We were developing Technical Price system for Motor in Allianz Russia for the very first time and it was a very exciting time to be a part of that team. From the very beginning I felt like I was a part of a big international company. We had materials from colleagues in other countries and there was a Centre of Competence we could reach out to if we had any questions. After a couple of years, we started facing some challenges on a Russian market – changes in legislation, court claims, inflation, you name it. The company’s performance was getting worse, and we found out that there was a team from Munich coming to visit us. We were expecting some sort of audit but to my surprise they came to help they supported us in the implementation of our proposed tariff changes."
"Second surprise was that they didn’t care about ranks at all – everyone’s input was important and valuable, and I was lucky enough to be involved in many decisions (partially because of my English knowledge). This was the first time I felt that we were part of a truly global community with people all around the world ready to help at any moment. Unfortunately, the situation in the market and in the country (it was after the start of Crimean crisis) was not getting any better, so Allianz decided to exit the retail business in Russia. So, I moved to finance department to do reserving.
But our effort in Motor pricing wasn’t forgotten when other countries in Central and Eastern Europe needed support with the technical pricing, our regional team from Munich invited us to join them and support other countries just like they supported us before.
That’s when I became a consultant for non-life insurance in the regional team. Although my role was originally purely actuarial, my responsibilities started expanding to cover other technical areas like underwriting, claims and product development. I got to know people from all over the world and was involved in international projects. The best part was being part of a community of experts from different countries who can always reach out to each other for support and best practice sharing.
After 4 years I wanted more challenges, knowledge, and exposure, so I reached out to my manager for advice and guidance. At this point I wasn’t surprised with Allianz culture anymore – this is place where your development is very important, and you always get support when you want to explore new opportunities. My manager helped me expand my network and encouraged me to consider opportunities in other countries. I learned that actuarial expertise is needed everywhere, so I chose to join the team in Singapore because I enjoy working in the markets where P&C insurance is less mature and more challenging.
Now, after 10 years with Allianz I know that our company cares about our future, it invests in training and knowledge sharing and encourages people to grow and take up new challenges.
I think that focus on mobility and sharing of experience brings our employees opportunities to be more flexible in their views, be more accepting of different opinions, mentalities and cultures and ultimately supports diverse and inclusive environment.
It’s been an incredible journey so far and I’m excited to see where it takes me next."
