Winning the award for young professional of the year involves demonstrating a determination to go above and beyond the usual. Lloyd Richards has certainly done that in his professional and personal life.

Richards joined consultancy Crowe in 2016 and was promoted to actuarial manager after six months in service. At 30, he is one of the youngest managers in the company, responsible for managing a team of risk consultants. Among his recent projects has been developing and embedding a full risk management policy suite at an insurer.

For the last eight years, outside of work, he has volunteered as a mathematics tutor to GCSE and A-Level students. One of his most recent volunteering activities was with the Access Project, a charity that helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds gain access to top universities.

Richards has also contributed to positive change within the actuarial profession. He has been selected to join the Diversity Advisory Group of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, which seeks to foster an inclusive and diverse profession and is currently working on initiatives which make the profession easier to re-enter for returning workers.

Comments from judges have been consistent to justify Richards's victory. One says his commitment to carry on studying after completing the Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries exams in 2016 is "exemplary".

His dedication to lifelong learning is obvious when he is asked how the risk and actuarial functions will evolve in the coming years. "Technology is going be a huge change. Actuarial students at the moment have to learn [programming language] R for their exams. I didn't have to do when I was studying. Qualified actuaries will be doing the same thing, we should be learning R as well."

Richards is also thinking about the next generation and how to attract the right talent to risk and actuarial functions.

"There's not many graduate opportunities in the risk team. It tends to be something people join later on in their careers. There needs to be a clearer pathway for graduates to get into risks rather than getting into pricing, reserving and other areas."