ANZIIF Faculty Advisory Boards (FAB)
Provide input and thought leadership, support and inform the broad spectrum of ANZIIF activities and provide access to industry, advocating on behalf of ANZIIF on all matters relating to their industry sector.
Committees:
- ANZIIF Professional development event committees
- The members provide input into and support of the respective professional development event.
- ANZIIF Journal Advisory Committee (JAC)
- Supports ANZIIF and the Journal editorial team in planning, sourcing and reviewing content for the Journal, ensuring the Journal remains a valuable resource to the financial services industry.
ANZIIF Membership Faculties
Provide members with a community of professionals in various sectors of insurance and finance. Being a part of a Faculty customises your membership experience and allows you to engage with peers and receive updates on topics of interest based on your area of expertise.
Meet the ANZIIF Board
The ANZIIF Board controls, assists and directs the work of ANZIIF. It deals with all matters on which a decision is required in the interests of ANZIIF and its members. The Board is required to present a report at each Annual General Meeting on the financial position and the affairs of ANZIIF during the past year.

Ben Bessell (President)
Ben Bessell (President)
Chief Broking Officer
Austbrokers (AUB)
Ben is Chief Broking Officer of Austbrokers and member of the Group Executive of AUB Group. He has been in that role since 2020.
Prior to that Ben was in a number of roles at IAG, including a member of the IAG Executive, Chief Executive of the Australian Business Division and Chief Commercial Officer for Commercial Insurance.
Ben is a Director of a number of businesses in the Austbroker network, a Senior Associate of ANZIIF, board member of NIBA and is an alumnus of the London Business School

Scott Leney (Deputy President)
Scott Leney (Deputy President)
Head of Risk Management, Asia & Pacific and Country Corporate Officer
Australia Marsh & McLennan Companies
Scott's current role follows a long career at Marsh where he held positions including CEO Australia, Head of Pacific Region and Head of Asia Pacific Risk Management. Scott also served as the Country Corporate Officer (CCO) for the Marsh McLennan enterprise in Australia.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Commerce (economics) and is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF).

Tim Plant
Tim Plant
Director and Immediate Past President
of ANZIIF
Tim is currently the Chief Insurance and Strategy Officer at IAG. Previous roles have included CEO of General Insurance, Australia and New Zealand at Zurich Financial Services Australia, Group Executive, Insurance for NSW at icare, CEO of QBE Australia and New Zealand, Managing Director of Elders Financial Services Group and Managing Director of Elders Insurance.
His qualifications include Bachelor of Agricultural Science from LaTrobe University and Master of Business Administration from University of New England. He is also a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Prue Willsford
Prue Willsford
Chief Executive Officer
ANZIIF
She has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services sector, including management accounting at Macquarie Bank and policy development at Investment Funds and Superannuation Association.
She has also held leadership roles in financial services product development, marketing and operations at Colonial Mutual and National Australia Bank. Prue was the Deputy Chancellor of Victoria University and the Chairman of the Resources Committee and is currently a Board member at Citywide Service Solutions.

Diego Ascani
Diego Ascani
Chief Executive Officer
Sedgwick Australia
Diego Ascani is the Chief Executive Officer for Sedgwick, overseeing all insurance, loss adjusting, forensic accounting, TPA, corporate services and building consulting & restoration services across Australia.
Prior to joining Sedgwick in 2017, Diego was the Managing Director and Head of Insurance and Advisory Services in Australia for Xchanging. In this role, Diego oversaw all Business Processing activities for Xchanging in Australia, as well as overall management of the Victorian and NSW workers compensation business operations. Diego worked for Xchanging between 2009 to 2016 after his role as Director of the Insurance Advisory Services practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers where he consulted broadly to the insurance sector in Australia and Asia Pacific region.
Diego has over 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry, including over 8 years in Workers Compensation/Personal Injury. He has extensive experience in the auditing and change management of claims practices for both government and general insurers and was seconded to the HIH Royal Commission between 2001 – 2002 to investigate the claims management practices of HIH and FAI. Diego has also been responsible for the significant ramp-up and upscaling of operations, most notably, the onboarding of additional claims volume (46% increase) on behalf of WorkSafe during the 2016 contract renewal.
Diego is a Director of the ANZIIF Board and also recently held a role on the Board of the Personal Injury Education Foundation. Diego is a qualified solicitor and authorised to engage in legal practice as a solicitor in NSW. He has a Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Law and an MBA. He is also an Associate of the Insurance Institute of SA and an affiliate of the Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters. Diego is a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors and Insurance Business Hot 100 list for 2023 and 2019.

Hilary Bates
Hilary Bates
Chief Operating officer, Life & Investments
Zurich
Previously, Hilary was the Chief Operating Officer for Zurich’s Life & Investments business from June 2021, and prior to this she was Chief Claims & Operations Officer for Zurich’s General Insurance business across Australia and New Zealand. Hilary first joined Zurich in August 2016. Throughout her career, Hilary has held senior management roles with a track record of delivering on customer, people, operational, financial and transformation objectives.
Hilary started her career in private practice working within insurance, risk management and litigation practice groups, before moving to work directly in insurance in 2004. Hilary worked in the USA for seven years gaining valuable and varied experience across complex claims and senior claims management roles, before returning to Australia in 2013.
Hilary holds a Bachelor of Arts (Archaeology), Bachelor of Laws (Honours), and Master of Laws from the University of Sydney and is admitted to practice law in New South Wales. With 20-years working in the insurance industry, Hilary is passionate about business transformation and delivering on the promise to Zurich’s customers.

Catherine Dixon
Catherine Dixon
EGM People Experience
Suncorp New Zealand
Catherine is accountable for the development, implementation and management of the People Strategy which supports the business objectives of Vero New Zealand and aligns to the Group’s overarching People Strategy.
Previously Catherine was the Executive Manager Human Resources & Communication for Suncorp Life New Zealand.
In 1999, Catherine joined the Life business of Royal & SunAlliance and supported the significant change to the business during her tenure including the acquisition and divestment of a number of businesses. Prior to joining the Suncorp Group, Catherine worked for IAG in both business and HR roles for 13 years.

Simone Dossetor
Simone Dossetor
Chief Executive Officer
Insurtech Australia
Simone is the CEO of Insurtech Australia, a national not-for-profit organisation with a vision to create a world leading insurtech ecosystem which aims to foster a diverse community of insurance innovation and collaboration across the Australian insurance industry.
An experienced leader in the insurance industry, Simone has held senior executive roles in both Australia and the UK and also has management consulting experience. Her previous role was that of Chief Operating Officer for Munich Re in Australasia. Additionally, she has been a Non-Executive Director of ANZIIF since August 2018.

Brendan Dunne
Brendan Dunne
Chief Customer and Operations Officer
Allianz Australia
Brendan has been with Allianz for 20 years and has held senior positions in Finance, Risk, Strategy and Transformation, including Chief Customer Services Officer, before being appointed Chief Customer and Operations Officer on 31 April 2021. In his time at Allianz, Brendan spent two and a half years working at Allianz SE based in Munich as part of the Global Risk function. During this time Brendan was able to work with most major Operating Entities within the Allianz Group.
Brendan was invited to join the Board of the B Miles Foundation in 2017, a charity that supports women living with a mental illness who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless. He is also on the Steering Board for the Bachelor of Accounting program at the University of Technology Sydney.
Brendan holds a Bachelor of Accounting from the University of Technology Sydney and is a member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Fiona Hayes-St-Clair
Fiona Hayes-St-Clair
Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer
QBE
With industry experience across the globe, Fiona joined QBE in 2018 and has had a range of roles at QBE across strategy, operations and transformation functions. Currently Fiona is responsible for setting the strategy for the Auspac division, leading the functions that help design the future organisation (incl. business architecture, human-centred design), equip the business to transform (process optimisation and data & analytics) and enable strategic transformation (change delivery and portfolio governance.
Prior to QBE, Fiona was General Manager Consumer & Wealth Strategy at National Australia Bank where she helped develop strategies to innovate customer experience, distribution and growth strategies for consumer banking and wealth management products and services. Fiona began her career as a strategy consultant at Booz & Company (now Strategy&) whereas a Partner she led the Insurance practice in Australia and NZ.
Fiona has an acute interest in the revolution in customer experience and business models brought about by digitisation and has authored intellectual capital and a number of whitepapers on this topic.

Kimberley Jonsson
Kimberley Jonsson
CEO
CHU Underwriting Agencies
In 2017 Kimberley was named Young Insurance Professional of the Year at the Australian Insurance Industry Awards. In addition to being a Fellow of ANZIIF, she is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds an MBA from AIM Business School.
Kimberley is one of the youngest CEOs in the Australian Financial Services sector.

Sarah Phillips
Sarah Phillips
General Manager, Corporate Affairs and CEO Office of AIA Australia
AIA

Tim Tez
Tim Tez
CEO – Australasia Resolution Life
MBA (Exec), Graduate Financial Planning, Bachelor Commerce, Fellow FINSIA
In his previous role at Avant Mutual as the CEO of Medical Indemnity he led the largest medical indemnity insurer in Australia with 52% marketshare. Prior to this he successfully led the $3.8b acquisition and integration of the Commonwealth Bank’s life insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand.
Tim also led the product, business development, pricing and marketing teams, as well as leading the global team to successfully launch the world’s leading health & wellness program Vitality in Australia, in his former role as Chief Marketing Officer at AIA. Tim is the former Director of the Financial Services Council Life Insurance sub-committee and in 2015 was voted in the top 25 Chief Marketing Officers in Australia by CMO magazine, with his contribution to the industry being recognised in 2016 by being voted “Asia’s Best Marketer” by CMO Asia.
ANZIIF Faculty Advisory Boards (FAB)
Provide input and thought leadership, support and inform the broad spectrum of ANZIIF activities and provide access to industry, advocating on behalf of ANZIIF on all matters relating to their industry sector.
Committees:
- ANZIIF Professional development event committees
- The members provide input into and support of the respective professional development event.
- ANZIIF Journal Advisory Committee (JAC)
- Supports ANZIIF and the Journal editorial team in planning, sourcing and reviewing content for the Journal, ensuring the Journal remains a valuable resource to the financial services industry.
ANZIIF Membership Faculties
Provide members with a community of professionals in various sectors of insurance and finance. Being a part of a Faculty customises your membership experience and allows you to engage with peers and receive updates on topics of interest based on your area of expertise.
Meet the ANZIIF Board
The ANZIIF Board controls, assists and directs the work of ANZIIF. It deals with all matters on which a decision is required in the interests of ANZIIF and its members. The Board is required to present a report at each Annual General Meeting on the financial position and the affairs of ANZIIF during the past year.