Risk Management Faculty Advisory Board

Claire Young MBA GAICD, BA (Hons), ANZIIF Fellow

Claire Young is Chief Operating Officer at ANZIIF, where she leads the organisation’s operational strategy across IT, finance, customer experience and compliance, supporting the continued evolution of Australia and New Zealand’s leading insurance education and professional body.

A highly respected executive leader with more than two decades of insurance and financial services experience, Claire is known for translating complex strategy into practical outcomes that strengthen organisational performance, governance maturity and people capability. Since stepping into the COO role, she has focused on building operational alignment, enhancing efficiency and enabling cross-functional collaboration to support industry education at scale.

Prior to ANZIIF, Claire spent over a decade with IAG, most recently as Executive Manager, Business Operations & Risk, where she led a multidisciplinary team delivering enterprise-wide change, governance uplift and operational transformation supporting the WFI brand. Her work significantly strengthened risk capability, planning discipline and strategic delivery within a complex, highly matrixed environment.

Claire also brings deep governance expertise through advisory work supporting financial services organisations with regulatory uplift, FAR implementation and board governance enhancement.

A Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), MBA-qualified and an ANZIIF Fellow, Claire is widely recognised as a people-first leader and mentor who believes sustainable business success is built through trust, inclusion and clarity of purpose. She is passionate about helping organisations and the people within them connect, thrive and grow while building stronger, more resilient industries.

Kai is a highly experienced global insurance leader who started his career at Lloyds of London and has since then accumulated more than 35 years of experience working in Australasia, Asia, North America, the Middle East and Switzerland.

He has a deep passion for the risk and insurance sector and a desire to change society's perception of the industry by transforming the overall insurance journey and greatly improving the value of protection offered to insurance buyers.

Prior to co-founding Vallum Kai, he spent almost 10 years as an Executive at Zurich Australia where he built its successful Global Corporate business and most recently held the role of General Manager for New Zealand.

He is a former Board Member of the Insurance Council of New Zealand and sits on ANZIIF's New Zealand Management Advisory Board as well as its Risk Management Faculty Advisory Board. He is also a founding member of Insurtech New Zealand.

Adam has over 35 years’ experience in the Insurance and Reinsurance markets, encompassing diverse roles across underwriting, claims, portfolio and general management. His career has been enriched by international secondments, adding a global perspective to his expertise.

In his current role at Howden Re, Adam is responsible for one of the most dynamic areas of the market, underwriting agencies. His role involves providing various advisory and broking functions to support agencies in Australia and New Zealand.

Adam’s responsibilities include strategic advisory, business planning, M&A, and attracting underwriting capacity. His role has a diverse exposure from SME to corporate risks in the property and casualty market.  

Ross is an experienced insurance project manager and consultant with a background in broking and risk advice for corporate Australian clients, insurance due diligence for private equity acquisitions and in-house insurance management. Specialising in mining, transport & logistics and major retail exposures, Ross is a qualified broker dedicated to his client’s insurance needs and is involved in all phases of the risk cycle. 

A strong advocate of ANZIIF, Ross has previously served as the Chair of ANZIIF Generation I Council, and has been an active member of the ANZIIF Risk Management Faculty Advisory Board since 2016. Ross was recognized as one of the top 50 'Young Guns' of the industry in 2016.

Brett leads Quantium’s Insurance practice, responsible for Appointed Actuary, reserving, capital modelling, pricing, risk management and data science services for insurers.

Before this he was the Chief Actuary and Appointed Actuary for Allianz Australia, responsible for reserving, capital management, reinsurance and strategic advice to Allianz's management and Board. Prior to that role he was Chief Risk Officer (CRO) for Arch LMI, a lenders mortgage insurer. Earlier in his career Brett was a Principal at Finity Consulting. 

His general insurance experience covers a range of assignments for Australian and UK insurers and reinsurers, including: pricing, reserving, risk management and portfolio and capital management for various short and long tail classes. He has been Appointed Actuary to eight insurers over his career and CRO for two.

Brett has a particular interest in Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). He led Finity’s ERM practice and was the Convenor of the Risk Management Practice Committee of the Actuaries Institute (2015-17).

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and a qualified Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary (CERA).

Naomi is currently the Chief Risk Officer and Company Secretary for the Medical Indemnity Protection Society (MIPS). Prior to this, Naomi worked in general insurance and energy industries in varied executive and senior roles, and across policy, risk, regulatory and consumer protection experience in state and federal government. Naomi holds a Bachelor of Laws and Master of Business Administration and is a Graduate of the Australia Institute of Company Directors.

Outside of her work at MIPS, Naomi has served on several NFP Boards and is currently a member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee for ‘Fitted for Work,’ an organisation dedicated to helping women find and retain employment.