Risk and reward – investing in start-ups and championing female founders. Solai talks about making the leap from corporate life to the startup world and what she’s learned from being one of the few women and the investor table.

How to engage investors and why diversity in startups is important. Solai dives into her investment philosophy and how her diverse background influences her approach.

Solai Valliappan previews her talk at the upcoming 2018 Young Actuaries Conference including the importance of a strong network.

Investing in startups and championing female founders. Solai is an investor in the tech space, with a keen focus on startups that are bringing about positive change.

Actuarial alumna Solai shares her journey from insurance to investing in startups and translating your co-op degree in work outside of your stream.

From Corporate to Venture Capital, Solai embraces purposeful entrepreneurship.

An eight-part documentary style series following Australian founders and VC operators on a transformative two-week journey in Tanzania - climbing Mt Kilimanjaro and immersing themselves with the local work of the Forever Projects team to see how income generation breaks the poverty cycle for women.

Solai discusses about learning to love being a board chair. She discusses the importance of structure, feedback, and clear boundaries between governance and operations, especially within small organisations and not-for-profits. Solai emphasises learning on the job, drawing on resources like podcasts and peer feedback, and encourages others to take on new challenges in board leadership.

Did you know girls are more likely to suffer from ‘maths anxiety’ than boys? And this has huge ramifications later in life – we’re talking career trajectory, lower pay and confidence in all things finance. But how did we get here and what can we do about it?

Jobs like nursing and teaching are in high demand – but still, their pay doesn’t measure up. In fact, most ‘women’s work’ despite high education levels, is valued less than men’s – and that even goes for women who actually have ‘blue jobs’. So, what stands in the way of valuing women’s work – and what can we do about it?

Did you know that Australia's Sex Discrimination Act gives workplaces cart blanche to disfavour dads? And this has huge ramifications on who takes paid parental leave, has workplace flexibility, and accrues the most superannuation. So, how can parents protect themselves?

Today’s younger women are in a much better financial situation than previous generations. Or are they? Research shows that almost a third of Sydney’s women believe if their relationship fell apart, they’d be in financial strife. So, what’s going on and what can we do about it?

Solai Valliappan has a Bachelor of Commerce (Actuarial Studies) from the University of NSW. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia & a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary.

Plenary 2: Knowledge Sharing