People and Talent Development Advisory Council (PATDAC)

Executive General Manager Human Resources

Vero Insurance New Zealand

Catherine has been part of the Suncorp Group for the last 15 years, joining Vero in March 2013 as the Executive General Manager Human Resources. 

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.

Capability Manager, IDII (Secondment)

MLC Life Insurance

I have worked in the Life Insurance industry for the last 20 years, both in Australia and overseas. I am currently working at MLC Life Insurance. My primary role has been in Underwriting, holding positions such as State Underwriting Manager and Technical Underwriting Lead. More recently I have been focussed on uplifting capability across the underwriting function to align with regulatory requirements and consumer expectations. This included the development of an MLC Life Underwriting Academy. I have also worked on the Life Insurance Professional Standards Working Group with ANZIIF with a view to developing Industry Standard Competency Frameworks for various areas within the Life Insurance Industry. I am an Associate Fellow of the ALUCA CPLI program and am currently taking part in a pilot program for the ALUCA Academy.

Manager Learning and Governance

IAG

Amanda is the Manager Learning and Governance at Insurance Australia Group (IAG). Amanda is an L&D and HR professional passionate about developing people with 20+ years experience gained from various roles across Financial Services, Human Resources, Professional Services Industries and Group Training and Registered Training Organisations. Amanda joined IAG in 2012 and her engaging, collaborative and practical approach to supporting business learning needs sees her managing the IAG LMS and quality governance of learning program administration, accountable for streamlining learning operations whilst ensuring a consistent and effective learning experience for the people of IAG.

Prior to her commencement with IAG, Amanda spent eight years working in a Registered Training Organisation and Group Training Organisation managing the delivery and assessment of Financial Services and Business Services training and associated Traineeship Programs to multiple Financial Services and Professional Services companies across Australia . Amanda holds a Diploma in Management, qualifications in Humans Resources, Training and Assessment and Financial Services and is a mum to two teens in high-school.

Amanda is also passionate about Community Involvement and Netball, seeing her volunteer and mentor with partnering Community Organisations through IAG and as the Secretary and Public Officer on her local Netball Club Committee.

Learning and Development Manager

Auto & General 

Laura is the Learning and Development Manager at Auto & General joining in 2019. Laura is an accomplished learning professional and leader with some 20+ years’ experience across a diverse range of large, complex and heavily regulated industries including heavy industry, manufacturing, financial services and Registered Training Organisations.

Laura is motivated to inspire and empower people with confidence, to achieve their very best, by influencing and driving business outcomes while building and sustaining an engaged and high performing workforce; By identifying systemic learning strategies intended to develop and transform behaviours, attitudes and performance, and to implement sustainable frameworks that promote positive outcomes. Laura has a proven background in development and implementation of short and long-term strategic learning objectives across a variety of learning interventions including: pointed leadership programs and supervisory and individual targeted development programs; from compliance-based training and on-boarding, to capability development, diversity and inclusion, engagement, mentoring and coaching, talent for succession, and traineeship and apprenticeship opportunities, for which she has received industry recognition.

Laura has a Diploma in Vocational Education and Training, Training Design and Development, Management, Business and Human Resources, and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Some fun facts, Laura also has a Statement of Attainment in Identify Hazards and Assess OHS Risks and Contribute to the Implementation of Strategies to Control OHS Risk from her heavy industry days, and is a qualified interpreter and translation holding a Bachelor of Arts, Interpreting and Translation.

Melinda is a passionate Learning and Development professional in the role of General Manager of L&D at Allianz Australia where she is transforming the learning culture.

After 20 years in business roles leading and developing teams providing end to end support services of paraplanning, technical, compliance, software and professional development to financial advisers in Financial Services as well as large projects, Melinda moved into HR. This career change was attributable to Melinda building her portfolio of transferable skills and her passion to develop, coach and mentor others to be their best. Previously at Westpac, since 2014 Melinda has been leading Learning and Development teams partnering with business leaders and organisations to build capability to achieve their business goals.

Melinda has a Bachelor of Commerce major in Accounting, Certificate of Executive Leadership from AGSM, Diploma of Financial Planning from Deakin and is a busy mum with two teenage children.

HR Manager

Insurance Council of Australia

Jessica is the HR Manager for the Insurance Council of Australia joining the ICA in mid-2020. She is an experienced HR professional, with more than 10 years in various HR Management roles across professional services, financial services and smaller industry and employer associations. Starting out with an accounting and finance background, Jessica is able to blend the people and culture and financial sides of an organisation.

Prior to her commencement with the ICA, Jessica was in a product development role writing and developing commercial training programs in a cross section of industry. She is also an experienced trainer specifically in the HR, business, leadership and financial streams.

Fundamental to her career is her ability to coach and mentor others, and inject a little laughter and happiness into the world. Jessica hold a Bachelor of Business and Commerce major in Accounting and Finance, a Master of Commerce (HRM and IR), and Certificate IV in Training and Development.

National Manager, Compliance and Training

SURA Pty Ltd 

Stephen’s career and experience spans over 40 years in the financial services and general insurance industry holding roles in all facets of the industry.

He currently holds the role of National Manager, Compliance and Training at SURA Pty Ltd one of Australia’s leading Underwriting Agencies. Previous job roles include Operations Manager, Personal Lines Underwriting Manager, Commercial and Motor Underwriting Superintendent and L&D Consultant involved in all facets of training at both a national and regional level and in particular the areas of technical and compliance training.

Stephen’s contributions to the industry have included serving on various industry discussion groups including the Sydney Motor Underwriters Group (SMUG) and the Domestic Underwriters Group. He was a founding member on ANZIIF’s PATDAC Committee having previously served on that committee for 8 continuous years, and has also provided subject matter expert services to ANZIIF as a member for over 35 years.

Up till recently, Stephen held a part time teaching role for 17 years at TAFE NSW’s Western Sydney Institute focussing on the design and delivery of their Cert III, Cert IV and Diploma of General Insurance (which included ASIC’s Tier 2 and Tier 1 units of competency) programs. He has also provided facilitation and subject matter expert services to Kaplan.

Stephen currently holds a Diploma of General Insurance, a TAE40110 Cert IV in Training and Assessment, a Cert IV in Celebrancy and is a current Senior Associate and Certified Insurance Professional (CIP) with ANZIIF.

Master of Education in Digital Learning

Bachelor of Vocational Education and Training

Diploma in Adult Education, and a Diploma in Financial Services.

Rod commenced in the general insurance industry as the National Training & Development Manager for Elders Insurance in August 2004 and moved into the role of QBE Group Senior Compliance Officer in September 2018 with QBE’s global Risk and Compliance team, supporting the QBE global compliance framework, across all divisional compliance and L&D teams. Rod currently consults and provides Instructional Design services with ANZIIF.

Rod has been a committee member of PATDAC since its inception in October 2004 as the Corporate Members Advisory Committee, CMAC. Rod served on ANZIIF’s SA Branch Executive Committee for 3 years, leading to his ongoing membership of the SA Charity Luncheon Committee.

Rod’s qualifications include, Master of Education in Digital Learning, Bachelor of Vocational Education and Training, Diploma in Adult Education, and a Diploma in Financial Services.

Organisational Development & Employee Experience Specialist

QBE

Morgana has a rich and diverse set of experiences working across multiple geographies collaborating with and leading teams in places such as Singapore and most recently Germany (while working flexibly in Sydney). In Singapore she worked for DBS Bank and was responsible to establishing their regional Service Institute and partnering with their innovation team to lead their culture transformation which took their customer satisfaction from the bottom to the top of external benchmarks in Singapore and winning awards for customer experience and call centre operations across Hong Kong and India to name a few.

Most recently Morgana has worked for Allianz starting in the Australian business where she was responsible for leadership, change and culture and as part of their transformation has taken on the role of the Global Head of Inclusion and Employee Experience covering their 140,000+ employees. She has set about applying what she has learnt about customer experience to support the achievement of a culture where people and performance matter. A proud former call centre agent, she believes in drawing on insights from the frontline and all parts of her organisation to guide and collaborate with leaders in building sustainable customer centric solutions.