General Insurance Faculty Advisory Board

State Operations Manager

IAG

A highly experienced and qualified insurance professional, Jenny is responsible for strategic growth and profitability in South Australia for QBE and leads a team of more than 40 people.

Jenny joined QBE in 2010 in the role of Distribution Manager Queensland and spent almost a year working in Manila helping the business set up an underwriting team. Prior to QBE, Jenny spent almost 20 years with CGU working in a variety of operational and management roles.

A founding member of ANZIIF’s General Insurance Faculty Advisory Board, Jenny enjoys contributing to advancing the skills and knowledge of insurance professionals in the Australian and New Zealand marketplace.

Jenny has a Graduate Diploma in Insurance and a Master of Business Administration from Deakin University.

General Manager

Insurance House Advance

Jim has extensive senior leadership; technical underwriting; strategic planning; sales and change management experience across intermediary distribution markets nationally.   Jim has key relationships held at all levels across the industry, that were developed over a career which commenced with Commercial Union in Melbourne back in 1977.  He is currently the National Manager of Rural Agency at Insurance House, responsible for the Agribusiness/Authorised Partner strategy and leading the Rural Broking business.

Jim has been actively involved with ANZIIF Committees throughout his career working in Melbourne, Perth, Ballarat and Launceston served a term as President of the Launceston Institute.  Jim is currently serving on the ANZIIF General Insurance Faculty Advisory Board Member.  Jim is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and he has also been a Board member of the Launceston Rotary Club & Heart Foundation in Tasmania.  

Jim is married with three adult children, enjoys sports, family leisure activities, hobby farming and membership of the Western Bulldogs Football Club.

Chief Executive Officer

TravelCard Travel Insurance

Peter Klemt is the CEO of TravelCard a full-service underwriting agency specialising in travel insurance. He is currently leading TravelCard’s re-entry into the Australian market after a short hibernation period due to COVID. 

Peter has been with TravelCard for just under 3 years in total.

TravelCard is different. It is revolutionising travel insurance in every market it enters, introducing Real Time claim payments, utilising a pre-paid debit card offered to each customer when they purchase travel insurance from TravelCard. 

Prior to re-joining TravelCard, Peter enjoyed a short stint at Unimutual and was with QBE for nearly 20 years prior to that, enjoying various executive management positions, culminating in his role as General Manager Business Development. This included P & L accountability for the Multinational Business Unit he helped establish globally and in Australia.  

He is a strategic customer focused leader with proven capacity in driving sustainable profitable growth. A builder of businesses, developing high performance teams with winning cultures that consistently deliver outstanding results. 

Peter is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors has a Bachelor of Business and is both a Fellow and a Continuing Insurance Professional of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance. 

Chief Customer Officer

NTI Limited

Janelle Greene is Chief Customer Officer at NTI, Australia’s largest transport and logistics risk and insurance provider. She is responsible for developing the strategic direction of NTI’s customer experience, marketing, business insights, and pricing and portfolio management teams. She previously held the role of NTI's General Manager – Strategic Delivery & Operations.

Janelle has broad experience in strategy, marketing and proposition development, strategic project delivery, and cultural and business transformations, and has consulted to Bupa, Rio Tinto and QSuper. Prior to that, she worked at Suncorp, Morgan Stanley London and Allied Irish Bank in Dublin.

Janelle has a Bachelor of International Business majoring in Economics and Marketing, a Masters of Business Administration majoring in Strategic Leadership and is accredited in the international Barrett’s Values Centre Cultural Transformation program. She has completed the ANZIIF Executive Certificate in General Insurance Underwriting and is currently undertaking the Stanford LEAD program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Kara joined the insurance industry in 2011 and is the National Claims Service Manager at CHU Underwriting Agencies. She is a leader who is passionate about the growth and development of professionals within the industry and is currently completing her MBA with the Australian Institute of Business.

In 2020 Kara was named by Insurance Business as a young gun and in 2021 Kara participated in the NIBA mentoring program as a mentor. She enjoys giving back to the industry serving on ANZIIF boards and committees

Chief Executive Officer

CHU Underwriting Agencies

Kimberley has worked in various roles in the insurance industry since 2005 and has an MBA from AIM Business School. Kimberley is a Fellow of the Australia New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.

Predominantly a specialist in body corporate insurance at CHU Underwriting Agencies, from April 2018, Kimberley assumes responsibility for CHU’s NSW and ACT Offices. This move follows, three successful years as the QLD/NT Branch Manager and ten years in South Australia. In addition to her onshore responsibilities, Kimberley manages a team of support staff located in Manilla, Philippines.

In 2016 Kimberley was named in Insurance Business Young Guns listing and was a Mentor in the NIBA Mentoring Programme. In 2017 she won the Young Insurance Professional of the Year award at the Australian Insurance Industry Awards. Kimberley also has ongoing involvement as an Insurance Subject Matter Expert Trainer for Strata Community Association.

Principal

McCabes Lawyers

Benjamin joined the TurksLegal Sydney office in April 2007 before moving to the Melbourne office in April 2012 to take up a senior position in the General Insurance practice group. He acts exclusively for insurers and SME providing advice on liability and indemnity across the spectrum of insurance products, policies and claims.

His commercial and insightful approach to litigation provides insurers with efficient and timely resolution of claims where possible and strong representation where required in disputes that cannot be resolved.

Prior to joining TurksLegal, Benjamin built a reputation as a skilled litigation lawyer across a range of jurisdictions and areas of law including insurance litigation, personal and corporate insolvency, commercial debt recovery, building and construction disputes, criminal defence, family and taxation law. 

Benjamin was admitted to practice as a solicitor and barrister in 2005 to the Supreme Court of New South Wales and to the High Court Of Australia. He is a member of both ANZIIF and AILA and in 2014 was appointed to the ANZIIF Generation I Council. Specialties: Insurance advice, dispute resolution and litigation

Executive General Manager, Commercial Portfolio & Underwriting Management

Suncorp

Darren O'Connell is Executive General Manager, Commercial Portfolio & Underwriting Management. He has been with the Group for over 26 years and has spent over 18 years within Corporate Portfolio. 

Darren has held a number of roles during his time with Suncorp, including Business Development Manager, National Operations Manager, National Development Manager – Corporate and Executive Manager, Corporate Property and Liability.

Darren was instrumental in the growth and success of the Vero Corporate Property and Liability portfolios, and has extensive experience dealing with brokers and clients. 

He holds a Certificate of Business Studies and a Fellowship of Insurance (Deakin).