Rural Affinity's Charlotte Dunning takes home 2025 John Allison Award

Charlotte Dunning, a product specialist at Rural Affinity, has jumped at opportunities throughout her insurance career.

So, she didn’t hesitate when the prospect of attending the Reinsurance International Study Course (RISC) 2025, came up.

Knowing of several colleagues who undertook the course in past years, she expected from their enthusiastic recommendations, that she would pick up significant new knowledge and insights through participating in this year’s course.

What she didn’t expect was to also walk away with the 2025 John Allison Award.

Long history, iconic status

RISC is an annual four-day event held in the Hawkesbury Valley, NSW. The course includes a range of lectures, workshops and presentations from the leading lights in reinsurance.

A core component of the course is a hands-on exercise where participants are grouped into syndicates and immersed in a real-life case study to design and test the optimal reinsurance program.

Using physical and digital tools, they collaborate on the creation of a fictional reinsurance treaty. This provides practical experience in developing and negotiating reinsurance programs.

At the conclusion of the course, each team presents the solutions they have collectively devised in response to the fictional reinsurance placement scenario.

Having worked exclusively in an underwriting agency since joining the industry in 2020, Dunning says her understanding of reinsurance was "high level.”

Compelling from the outset

She signed up for the course seeking to gain a deeper appreciation of reinsurance structures and the impacts of reinsurance on the broader insurance industry.

The course exceeded Dunning’s expectations. “It delivered on the areas that compelled me to attend, as well as offered a plethora of new concepts for me to dive into,” she shares.

As part of simulating the reinsurance placement, Dunning had the opportunity to negotiate with Windsor Re on the structure and premiums of her syndicate’s program.

She reflects that this activity solidified the importance of knowing the specifics of your portfolio.

“Understanding where the problems and opportunities were in our team’s portfolio proved beneficial in discussions and aided in achieving the desired outcomes that our team had set ahead of the negotiations,” she confirms.

One of the strengths of the RISC course is that syndicates are mentored by senior reinsurance practitioners with extensive industry experience and technical expertise.

Dunning is very thankful for her syndicate leaders, Teresa Aquilina and Tobias Pfau. “Their insights and willingness to answer questions over the course of the syndicate sessions was essential in consolidating my understanding of the complexities of reinsurance,” she says.

High intensity builds challenge

It was a highly intensive course, and Dunning admits that the pacing of the course delivery was challenging. However, she recognises the immense benefit in this approach.

“Learning new content and applying it to a ‘real world’ scenario the same day, while difficult, was imperative in cementing the knowledge that the sessions had equipped us with.

"This also meant that our syndicate had to make quick decisions based on the information we had absorbed, and move on, even if we weren’t fully satisfied with the outcome,” she explains.

“While these were the hardest elements of the course, they were ultimately the most rewarding.” 

In particular Dunning gained from the embedded collaboration and networking that the RISC course offered.

“The syndicate sessions were a hive of activity, with the diversity of industry roles offering all of us the opportunity to learn from one another,” she says.

“The evening dinners and post-course work activities provided the perfect environment to meet and network with fellow participants and syndicate leaders. Karaoke Night was an absolute hit.”

Run with the opportunity

Dunning strongly encourages anyone considering the RISC course to jump in. “Regardless of what part of the industry you work in, it is an excellent chance to see the reinsurance placement process from start to finish,” she says.

“Leaving the RISC course, I am thankful for the chance to have met and collaborated with so many skilled and accomplished industry professionals, and I have a reinvigorated interest in our industry.”

The humble winner was completely surprised to receive the John Allison Award. “Having met and worked alongside so many talented participants over the duration of the course, it hadn’t crossed my mind that I would be in the running, let alone win it,” she says.

According to Irene Lai, Chair of ANZIIF RISC 2025, Dunning showed authentic leadership and uplifted her peers through an inclusiveness, supportive nature, resilience and integrity.

Dunning, attributes her win to the skills and experience she has gained through working at Rural Affinity for the past five years and to her fellow syndicate members.

“I have been incredibly fortunate that Rural Affinity has instilled a culture of collaboration and encouragement to pursue our interests. This has allowed me to be exposed to a wide variety of insurance functions early on in my career,” she says.

A strong learning culture

Before entering insurance, Charlotte Dunning worked as a barista and dance teacher. When her gap-year travel plans were cancelled by COVID-19 in 2020, she jumped at a data entry role with Rural Affinity, a chance to combine her interest in agriculture with meaningful work experience.

While studying Commerce at University of Sydney, Dunning moved into junior farm underwriting, supported by Rural Affinity’s strong culture of learning and development.

“From day one, they encouraged me to grow – offering training, exposure to complex risks and the chance to take on real responsibility,” she says.

After graduating, she accepted a full-time role as Product Specialist, mentored by Jess Chambers and James Hooper.

“They’ve been instrumental in my professional growth: generous in their knowledge sharing and modelling what great leadership looks like.”

Depth and pace

While Dunning didn’t plan a career in insurance, she found herself drawn to its depth and pace.

“The breadth of technical skills, the rapidly changing environment and variety of roles are the core aspects of the industry that keep me here,” she says.

She also acknowledges the challenges ahead: increasingly extreme climate events and the growing role of AI.

“Our industry supports people through some of their toughest moments,” she adds. “We must ensure technology never replaces genuine human connection.”