Meet Regina Chan, FCAS, and Dr. Ambrose Lo, FSA, CERA. These two expert educators are joining Coaching Actuaries to support Exam 6U and INV 201 students with deep industry and teaching experience.
We’re excited to welcome two outstanding educators to the Coaching Actuaries team: Regina Chan, FCAS, Content Reviewer for Exam 6U, and Dr. Ambrose Lo, FSA, CERA, Content Coach for INV 201. Both bring deep subject matter expertise, real-world experience, and a genuine passion for helping students like you succeed.
Regina Chan, FCAS, Exam 6U Content Reviewer
Regina Chan holds a BBA in actuarial science and risk management from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and she brings over 12 years of industry experience as an actuarial and data science professional.
Currently, as Director of Actuarial at State National Companies, she leads the enterprise analytics roadmap and oversees both contract- and portfolio-level reserving.
Her career has also included major roles at American National and American Family Insurance, where she built multidisciplinary modeling teams and led large-scale pricing model deployments.
Building the Professional Onto the Personal
Regina says her path to Coaching Actuaries was as much personal as it was professional.
"I had been friends with several actuaries at Coaching Actuaries for years before I started to get involved professionally,” she says, “and the culture at Coaching Actuaries always attracted me.”
Her background also includes years of volunteer work with the CAS in both exam writing and grading, so when Coaching Actuaries began expanding its offerings for CAS exams, the opportunity felt like “a natural and exciting next step.”
Bringing a Student-First Perspective to Exam 6U
Regina knows firsthand how demanding Exam 6U can be. "When I was studying for Exam 6,” she notes, “I felt there were limited high-quality materials available on the market. I ended up studying more for that exam than any other in the FCAS track."
That personal experience, combined with CA's reputation for making exam prep more approachable and effective, made this project one she couldn't pass up: "That inspired me to be part of a project that could genuinely improve candidates' experiences."
How She Evaluates Content
Regina approaches content evaluation from both technical and practical angles, drawing on her extensive industry background. "I focus on whether explanations are clear, logically structured, and consistent with actuarial standards, while also asking: 'Would this make sense to someone who will actually use it on the job?'"
When assessing whether material is course-ready, she puts herself in the student's seat, assessing whether concepts build progressively and without confusion, then cross-referencing with source readings for accuracy and completeness.
Deeper Understanding as the Key to Success
In Regina's view, the real challenge for students isn't any single topic, but “developing a deep conceptual understanding and being able to apply the material across different contexts, rather than relying on memorization."
In her reviews, she intentionally weaves in industry context, since that broader perspective helps concepts stick. "A deeper understanding ultimately improves both exam performance and long-term professional competence,” she says.
When she's not reviewing content, you'll find Regina in the great outdoors. "I really enjoy hiking and scuba diving,” she says. “Hiking helps me clear my head, and scuba diving gives me a completely different perspective. It's peaceful and forces you to stay present."
Dr. Ambrose Lo, FSA, CERA, INV 201 Content Coach
Dr. Ambrose Lo (羅彥博, a.k.a. 安寶老師) is a quantitative finance specialist with a PhD in actuarial science from the University of Hong Kong, where he also completed his BSc. His doctoral research focused on dependence structures and quantitative risk management.
Ambrose has taught at both the University of Hong Kong and the University of Iowa, earning multiple teaching awards along the way. He is the author of several actuarial study manuals and a textbook on financial derivative pricing. He’s widely known for his ability to make technically demanding material accessible (and even enjoyable).
A Partnership That Almost Got Lost in Spam
The collaboration has a memorable origin story. Coaching Actuaries President Tong Khon Teh reached out to Ambrose by email to explore a partnership, except the message landed in Ambrose's spam folder. "Perhaps even Google didn't think this collaboration was real!" says Ambrose. Fortunately, he found the email, and he was glad to come aboard.
Ambrose sees INV 201 as a particularly meaningful challenge. "FSA exams in quantitative finance are notorious for their technical sophistication,” he says. “The various abstract concepts, compounded by confusing mathematical symbols all over the place, have made these exams intimidating to many students for long."
That's precisely the kind of problem he's built his career around solving. His goal with the new INV 201 course is to turn what can feel like a sprawling, disconnected syllabus into a coherent and manageable learning experience.
Why His Teaching Approach Is Unique
What sets Ambrose's approach apart is the rare combination of formal training in pedagogy alongside PhD-level expertise in the very mathematics that INV 201 demands.
"Advanced mathematical techniques for stochastic processes, stochastic differential equations, and pricing complex derivatives are readily available in my toolbox,” he says, “not something I have to learn from scratch just for the purposes of this exam."
His university teaching experience gives him a firsthand understanding of where students tend to get stuck, and his coaching is always concept-driven. "My top priority is always on inculcating students with a thorough understanding of the subject and, more importantly, logical reasoning skills, which will carry over to their future careers."
Beyond Exam Success
Above all, Ambrose wants students to genuinely connect with the subject. "Quantitative finance, while mathematically challenging, is a practically useful and interesting subject! I'd like students to have some fun in the learning process as well."
Outside of work, Ambrose stays sharp by keeping up with current events, collecting memes he might one day work into a study manual, and rope skipping to stay physically and mentally fit.
We're incredibly excited to have Regina and Ambrose on board! Their combined expertise, industry depth, and dedication to student success make them ideal partners in helping you tackle two of the most technically demanding exams in the actuarial track. Stay tuned for more updates on our Exam 6U and INV 201 courses!