Curriculum Vitae

Work experience

• 2021 - current: PhD candidate in actuarial science at KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Started my PhD in November 2021 under supervision of Prof. dr. Katrien Antonio. Main focus will be the use of machine learning in actuarial science, with a focus on interpretabililty and usability in practice.
• 2015 - 2021: Risk modelling expert at NN Life Insurance, Belgium
  • My traineeship at Delta Lloyd Life transitioned into a full-time position as Risk Modelling Expert in the Delta Lloyd Life Risk Modelling team. In 2017, Delta Lloyd merged with NN Insurance.
  • The lapse assumption model was a large project throughout the years. Transitioning from an expert judgment-based model to a fully data-driven model with all calculations and calibration done in R. A combination is made between machine learning techniques and regulatory/operational effects.
  • I was involved in the mortality assumption studies over the years, and researching machine learning techniques for switch behaviour in individual universal life/unit-linked products. I performed several model changes in Prophet and was part of the team making the transition of the cash flow model in Prophet to IBM R3S (AFM).
• 2014 - 2015: Risk Modelling trainee at Delta Lloyd Life Insurance, Belgium
  • Two part-time traineeships during my studies in the Modelling team of Delta Lloyd Life (Risk Department). First traineeship was on the grouping of model points for cashflow projection model, with the use of Prophet. Second traineeship working on the lapse assumption model; analysis of methods in place, update and transition to R for the data process.

Services

• 2025
  • Elected ABAP representative for the insurance research group
  • Member of the POC MAFE/MAFW
  • Member of the AFI council
  • Member of the KU Leuven, FEB Campus council Leuven
  • Member of the KU Leuven, FEB faculty council
• 2024
  • Elected ABAP representative for the insurance research group
  • Member of the POC MAFE/MAFW
  • Member of the Subcommision MAFE/ZIM
  • Member of the KU Leuven, FEB Campus council Leuven
  • Member of the KU Leuven, FEB faculty council
• 2023
  • Elected ABAP representative for the insurance research group
  • Member of the POC MAFE/MAFW
• 2022
  • Member of the POC MAFE/MAFW
• 2021
  • Member of the POC MAFE/MAFW

Teaching

• Teaching assistent
  • 2021 - current: TA for the course Solvency of Financial Institutions. My tasks involved co-organizing the course structure, making contact with industry speakers from KBC, EY, AG Insurance, National Bank of Belgium and QBE Re, and the organization and grading of tests, exams and assignments.
• Master thesis workleader
  • 2021 - current: Workleader for master theses in the MAFE program and the Statistics & Data Science program at KU Leuven. Supervised over ten master theses between 2021 and current.

Research visits

• December 2024
  • University of Toronto, on invitation from Prof. Christopher Blier-Wong.

Publications

A multi-view contrastive learning framework for spatial embeddings in risk modelling

Holvoet, F., Blier-Wong, C., & Antonio, K. (2025). A multi-view contrastive learning framework for spatial embeddings in risk modeling. arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.17954.

Neural networks for insurance pricing with frequency and severity data: a benchmark study from data preprocessing to technical tariff

Holvoet, F., Antonio, K., & Henckaerts, R. (2025). Neural Networks for Insurance Pricing with Frequency and Severity Data: A Benchmark Study from Data Preprocessing to Technical Tariff. North American Actuarial Journal, 29(3):519-562.

Grants

• KU Leuven Global Seed Funding 2026
  • SAFIR: SpAtiotemporal Foundation models for understanding and modelling 21st century emerging Insurance Risks
  • Project between the University of Toronto (Christopher Blier-Wong and Andrei Badescu) and KU Leuven (Katrien Antonio and me)
  • Involved both in writing the grant application and as scientific collaborator on the project

Talks

Seminar during research visit at the University of Lausanne

Lausanne, Switzerland - January 20, 2026

ASTIN Bulletin conference

Zurich, Switzerland - January 14, 2026

Second Doctoral Seminar (PhD track) at KU Leuven

Leuven, Belgium - December 17, 2025

AIBE session - organized by AG Insurance

Brussels, Belgium - December 08, 2025

Insurance: Mathematics & Economics conference

Tartu, Estonia - July 01, 2025

7th Insurance Data Science conference

London, UK - June 18, 2025

ASTeRISK Workshop at KU Leuven

Leuven, Belgium - February 11, 2025

Weekly Seminars on Risk Management and Actuarial Science at University of Waterloo

Waterloo, Canada - December 04, 2024

Seminar during research visit at the University of Toronto

Toronto, Canada - December 02, 2024

AFI BrownBag Seminar at KU Leuven

Leuven, Belgium - November 28, 2024

First Doctoral Seminar (PhD track) at KU Leuven

Leuven, Belgium - November 13, 2024

ASTIN Reading Club

Online - November 07, 2023

5th Insurance Data Science conference

London, UK - June 16, 2023

Invited talk at Thomas More

Mechelen, Belgium - October 14, 2022

European Actuarial Journal conference 2022

Tartu, Estonia - August 14, 2022

Education

• Ph.D in Actuarial science, KU Leuven, Belgium, 2026 (expected)
• M.S. in Actuarial and Financial Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium, 2021
• M.S. in Insurance, KU Leuven, Belgium, 2014
• B.S. in Mathematics, KU Leuven, 2013

Personal interests

• Founder and head of the Project TableTop VZW in Herent, Belgium. We have been organising events around boardgames since 2017, most notably the yearly event HEX.
• Woodcarver and woodturner under the pseudonym Wooden Pandas. Completed four years of woordcarving school at Qrios Leuven.
• Trivia: fan of punkrock, postrock, and metal (melodic, trash) music. Used to be active in youth movements (Chiro). During my studies I was active in the student organisation Wina VZW.