Boards and Councils

Ben has worked in the insurance industry for over 25 years and lived and worked in many locations and business areas.

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 is Head of Asias Pacific, Everest Insurance International with operations in Australia and Singapore and growth ambitions to significantly expand Everest's presence across the region. 

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).

Katrina has spent much of her career in financial services. A Chartered Accountant by trade, Katrina started her career in Audit, spent time at Newton Fund Management in London and then joined Westpac Trust.

She has owned her own small accountancy business for seven years, after which she was the Financial Controller for the New Zealand National Party. Katrina has a deep understanding of the legislative process and how to influence policy development, drawn from her experience as a two-term Member of Parliament. During that time, she chaired Select Committees and was a member of the Commerce Select Committee during the significant legislative changes in the financial services sector.  

Katrina has considerable experience leading membership bodies, working with regulatory change, creating public awareness, and has developed a learning academy. In addition to this she has managed the significant Funeral Trust Fund.

Katrina has been the CEO of Financial Advice NZ for five years. She was the inaugural CEO which merged three industry bodies into one professional body. In this time the organisation has become the voice of the financial advice sector, influenced significant legislative and regulatory change, and delivered quality professional development. In addition to this she has ensured research has been the basis for promoting the value of advice to consumers, enabling more New Zealanders, to seek quality financial advice to increase their financial health, wealth and wellbeing.

 

(03) 9613 7223

[email protected]

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 was appointed Chief Operating Officer, Australia & New Zealand, in May 2022 including accountability for Zurich’s Life & Investments business in Australia and Zurich’s General Insurance business in Australia and New Zealand. In this role, Hilary leads a team of professionals that are dedicated to delivering operational excellence, outstanding customer service, technology solutions, operational governance and business resilience.

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 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.

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 is Allianz Australia’s Chief Customer and Operations Officer. Brendan is responsible for delivering our target customer and partner experience across General Insurance Claims, Credit Operations, Information Technology, Cyber Security, Business and Technology Transformation, Procurement and Workplace Services. He is also the executive sponsor of the Allianz Pride network.

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 is a leader and strategist with over 20 years of experience and a passion for transforming organisations to deliver customer-centric strategies. Fiona is passionate about coaching and developing teams and leaders and enjoys spending time working through tricky problems with her team.

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.

As one of Australia’s leading strata insurance specialists, Kimberley Jonsson is CEO of CHU Underwriting Agencies.

Kimberley joined the insurance industry in South Australia in 2005. She has worked across multiple jurisdictions and held various underwriting sales and management roles. Kimberley has a wealth of experience and knowledge of the strata insurance industry and the strata community.

In 2017 Kimberley was named Young Insurance Professional of the Year at the Australian Insurance Industry Awards.

In addition, Kimberley is a Fellow and Board Member of ANZIIF, she is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds an MBA from AIM Business School.

Sarah is responsible for AIA Australia’s public policy advocacy, strategic communications, ESG and leads the CEO Office. Prior to joining AIA in 2018, Sarah worked in a number of public policy roles, including as a consultant to the FSC with responsibility for developing the Life Insurance Code of Practice, and as Reputation Manager at the Business Council of Australia. Sarah holds a Master of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) from the University of Auckland.

Tim has been appointed as the CEO of Resolution Life Australasia from February 2023. He has over 23 years of experience in the insurance industry with an extensive background across distribution, M&A, strategy, reinsurance, product, pricing, marketing, strategy and government relations.

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.