Louise Francis is the Consulting Principal and founder of Francis Analytics and Actuarial Data Mining, Inc. where she leads predictive modeling, simulation and related actuarial projects and engagements.
Ms. Francis has introduced insurance professionals to advanced modeling methods, including simulation, predictive modeling and text mining, both as a speaker at conferences and as an author of papers and articles. Five of her papers were awarded the Data Quality/Data Technology prize by the CAS (Casualty Actuarial Society) and IDMA (Insurance Data Management Association). The papers covered specific modeling procedures such as neural networks and MARS (multivariate adaptive regression splines) as well as leading edge data gathering techniques such as text mining. They also illustrated a variety of insurance applications including fraud modeling, reserving and underwriting.
As an insurance professional, Ms. Francis has expertise in a variety of techniques for pricing and reserving insurance products, both on a traditional and leading edge basis. She also has experience planning and evaluating programs for claims loss cost reduction. Ms. Francis pioneered the application of data mining technologies such as neural networks and text mining to insurance data to identify patterns useful for managing claims and making underwriting decisions.
Ms. Francis has over 25 years of experience in the actuarial profession. Prior to starting her own firm, she was Director and Associate Actuary for CIGNA Property and Casualty where she provided actuarial expertise to the Claims Division and ESIS, CIGNA's third party claims administrator. She was responsible for evaluating the overall performance of the Claims Division and measuring the effectiveness of specific Claims Division initiatives such as use of health care professionals in the management of claims.
Ms. Francis was appointed by the Casualty Actuarial Society's (CAS) board of directors to a three year term as Vice President of Research and Development. In this capacity, she is responsible for helping the CAS achieve its vision of being recognized internationally as a leader in sponsoring and conducting property and casualty insurance research. Ms. Francis is a past chair of the Committee on the Theory of Risk. She has been involved in a number of other CAS initiatives, including estimating reserve variability, improving data quality, and reviewing papers for the CAS journal Variance. Ms. Francis also participated on an American Academy of Actuaries committee which developed standards of actuarial practice.
Ms. Francis received her Bachelor of Arts degree from William Smith College and a Master of Science degree in Health Sciences from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. She is also a member of the American Risk and Insurance Association and the American Statistical Association.