Reinsurance International Study Course

Estelle has played a role in some of Australia’s high-profile insurance milestones – she was the actuarial expert to the HIH Royal Commission and more recently the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

She worked with the State and Federal Governments on the Liability Crisis back in the early 2000s and has continued to advise insurers and governments on personal injury insurance issues.

Estelle was the President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2015 and in 2012 was named Actuary of the Year. She has been a member of the Board of the National Disability Insurance Agency since 2017.

Andrew has experience in all facets of reinsurance during his extensive career with companies including Capital Group PNG, Allianz, Representing Lloyds through CBD Underwriting, Gen Re, GIO Re, Skandia in UK and Australia.

He also has Board experience with Insure That, CBD Underwriting, Lox Sports, Elan Vital Australia, AS Harrison and Harrison Manufacturing.

He is previous chair of the Reinsurance Study Course, ANZIIF Reinsurance Faculty, ANZIIF Reinsurance Rendezvous and served for many years on the ANZIIF Journal Committee.

Teresa started off her Reinsurance career 30 years ago with NRG Victory. After 5 years Teresa commenced with a new company, ReAC as a property underwriter covering USA and ANZ.

Following ReAC, she then worked at Swiss Re in Sydney as a Client Manager before moving over to the products side as a Senior Casualty Treaty Underwriter where she stayed for 13 years.

Teresa’s current role is a change from her previous roles and is at Guy Carpenter as a Senior Broker where she has been for 10 years. Teresa is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and has been on committee for RISC for the past few years, including presenting at the course and a syndicate advisor.

Beginning his insurance career underwriting corporate liability business at MMI General Insurance in 1996, Adam worked in the direct insurance market until parting ways with Allianz Australia to join Swiss Re as a Casualty Facultative Underwriter in 2004.

During his time at Swiss Re, Adam worked in both the Facultative and the Treaty Markets across a portfolio of clients with businesses activities varying from locally based specialised Medical Defence Organisations and Legal Insurers to large regional and international insurance companies.

From January 2013, Adam has worked as an Executive Director in Gallagher Re’s (previously Willis Re) Broking team and is the Client Executive for a number of insurance companies, government schemes and mutual companies, large and small, based in Australia and New Zealand.

He is also a member of Gallagher Re’s International Casualty Practice Group, providing advice and technical direction on long tail lines of business.

This year marks Simon’s 42nd year in the Insurance Industry; 10 years working in the London Market and over 31 years working here in Australia.

Simon has been a Reinsurance Broker and Programmes & Binders specialist for over 35 years; as well as working for Allianz Australia for 5 years (where he was the Senior Manager for Sompo).

Simon is delighted to work at Howden Tiger. Simon is an ANZIIF (Fellow) CIP.

Simon is extremely proud that 2023 marks the 31st year he has been involved in the Reinsurance Study Course (since arriving in Australia in 1991). Simon was the RISC President for 5 years and he spent 8 years on the Organising Committee. Simon is far older than he looks!

Victoria has more than 20 years in the (re)insurance industry.

She began her career at Munich Re on the Graduate Training Programme, and from there moved into both facultative and treaty roles underwriting Property, Marine and Agriculture risks. 
From there she moved to Allianz Australia, to look after their Rural portfolio, farmpack and crop insurance.

From there she then moved to Hannover Re, when they established their local officer in Sydney, responsible for Property and Agricultural treaty business. Victoria has been involved with RISC for at least the past five years as a Committee member, Syndicate Advisor and Presenter.

Cassie has worked in the insurance industry for over 30 years, holding a range of senior roles across reinsurance underwriting (Swiss Re), reinsurance broking (E W Payne, Willis Re) and general insurance (QBE Insurance).

In November 2022 she joined Gallagher Re. Cassie is a Fellow of ANZIIF, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from Sydney University.

Cassie first attended the Reinsurance Study Course as a participant in 1990 and enjoyed it so much that a few years later she regularly attended as either a speaker or syndicate advisor. For a variety of work reasons she was absent for a few years and is now very excited to once again be a part of RISC!

I’ve spent my entire career with Aon. I started in the accounts team as a fresh-faced 24 year old before working my way through Broker Back Up into my current role as a Treaty Broker.

At Aon I am lucky enough to work on a number of Property and Casualty placements, and I manage a diverse range of clients from small Pacific Island companies, Australian Mutuals, and International listed Insurers.

This year is my 10th Anniversary of attending RISC as a student (2013). I am very proud and excited to come back and teach the next generation.

Scott has over 25 years’ experience in the reinsurance industry. Before becoming a Managing Director within Munich Re, he had varied roles running Non-Life reinsurance businesses, technical underwriting, underwriting management and client management.

Prior to joining Munich Re, Scott worked in both direct insurance and reinsurance companies in underwriting based roles spanning various lines of business involving both Australian and International regions.

Jurgen has over 35 years’ experience in the finance sector, and most recently held the position of Head of Insurance Risk at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for 7 years.

Prior to APRA, Jurgen held senior positions within the insurance industry and has worked for companies such as Allianz, Gerling and QBE. He also lectured at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) for 8 years on Reinsurance, and is a strong supporter of continuous education. Jurgen recently formalised his love of training by completing the Diploma of Training and Development and is currently teaching at TAFE, NSW.

Attending RISC as a participant in 1984, Jurgen returned to RISC as a Syndicate Advisor in 1997 and has maintained that role ever since. In 1998 he also presented at RISC for the first time, and joined the RISC Organising Committee in 2006. Jurgen continues to present and offer his time as a Syndicate Advisor and Organising Committee member.

Jurgen also joined ANZIIF’s Reinsurance Faculty Advisory Board in 2012 and has served as a committee member of the Reinsurance Discussion Group in Sydney.

Bo joined Guy Carpenter in 2022 as a Senior Vice President in Treaty Broking for the Australasia market. He has over 15 years of experience working in the reinsurance industry across underwriting, broking, and analytics, servicing clients from Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and Greater China.

Bo is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and a Fellow of ANZIIF. He has a Master of Commerce degree in Actuarial Studies from Macquarie University and an MBA (Executive) from the Australian Graduate School of Management, UNSW.

Irene has over 17 years experience in insurance and reinsurance. She has held a variety of roles including as a capital modeller, catastrophe reinsurance underwriter, reinsurance actuary, and has been with QBE since 2015.

In her current role as the Group Head of Underwriting Governance, Sustainability and Standards in the Group Chief Underwriting Office her current remit includes working with the business to deliver QBE's commitments - including interim targets to net-zero in underwriting. Irene is a Fellow of the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Irene has also held the role of President of the NSW RDG Reinsurance Discussion Group for a number of years, and actively participates in industry committees or working groups including the UN-convened Net Zero Insurance Alliance working group that set a Standard for GHG Reporting for re/insurance underwriting portfolios and a Target Setting Protocol.

After a brilliantly brief career as a burglar alarm salesman, Carl joined the Sun Alliance insurance company in 1989 in Glasgow, Scotland. He trained as a commercial property underwriter and spent nine years in RSA’s overseas head office in Horsham, England which included secondments to Canada and The Philippines.

He spent a further year in RSA’s European head office in London before re-locating to Sydney in 2000, specialising in reinsurance placement with RSA, Promina, Vero and Suncorp.

Ben joined the Insurance industry in the late 90’s as a Scientific Analyst, and throughout his career has gained an intimate knowledge of most aspects of reinsurance analytics, including research and development, model construction, catastrophe modelling, DFA analysis and RI pricing.

He has worked for reinsurers, large corporations and governmental organisations in Australia and globally, and was Head of Aon Analytics from 2008 to 2014. More recently Ben has taken on responsibility for Sales, Marketing and New Business at Aon Benfield, where he helps share Aon Benfield’s innovation, passion and drive with the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Ben has presented Catastrophe XL Modelling since 2005, and has been a member of the RISC Organising Committee since early 2007.

Ben is the Chair of the RISC Organising Committee.

Sally is a senior underwriter at Berkley Re where she underwrites casualty and property business in both the treaty and facultative markets. Her responsibilities include writing Australian, New Zealand & Pacific Island Business.

Prior to this she completed her Bachelor of Commerce degree at Wollongong University followed by working at Macquarie Bank for a number of years, before making the jump into the reinsurance world in 2013.

Sally has been involved in a number of industry training programs including completing the ANZIIF certificate IV & diploma in general insurance and was the reinsurance discussion group scholarship winner in 2016.

Tobias joined Gen Re in Cologne, Germany in 2000 after completing a masters degree in business and economic sciences. Tobias worked to support treaty underwriting for the French and Australian markets and after four years, moved to Sydney joining Gen Re in Australia where he focused on property and catastrophe reinsurance. In 2014 he became the Chief Underwriter in the Asia Pacific region.

In 2021 Tobias joined Unimutual as Manager Underwriting and Reinsurance. He is a Fellow CIP member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In over 20 years in the insurance and reinsurance industry Tobias developed a strong reputation in the domestic and international markets as a leading underwriter.

Johanna is a customer focused reinsurance professional cultivating long-term relationships with business partners and key stakeholders.

Johanna has a high sense of ownership and consistent drive to achieve exceptional results and contribute to business objectives.

Alvin joined Munich Re in 2021 as an Underwriter, responsible for Property treaties in the Australian and New Zealand market.

Alvin has over 8 years of experience in (re)insurance industry, across actuarial, pricing, underwriting, reinsurance structure optimisation and natural perils modelling, for both Property and Liability classes of business.

Prior to joining Munich Re, Alvin worked at Willis Re (now known as Gallagher Re) and Marsh. He has also been presenting the Reinsurance and Dynamic Financial Analysis module for the FSAA General Insurance Intermediate Course.

Chris is an insurance executive with experience in general insurance, workers compensation, health insurance, medical indemnity and reinsurance. He has worked extensively in insurance leadership roles within insurers and as a consultant to the insurance industry. Chris has leadership experience in most aspects of the insurance sector including small specialised insurers and large insurers.

Chris is also a non-executive director and Chair of MIPS Insurance Pty Ltd, a medical indemnity insurer. Through his role with ARPC, Chris is also a member of the OECD High Level Advisory Board for the Financial Management of Large-Scale Catastrophe Risks. Previous professional roles include being General Manager Workers Compensation at GIO, Executive Director at Ernst & Young, and General Manager Benefits Management at HCF.

ARPC is a member of The International Forum for Terrorism Risk (Re)Insurance Pools, where Chris is also President of IFTRIP for  2020 year.

Chris has a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, specialising in general insurance pricing and strategy. He is a fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance, a Certified Insurance Professional, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.