Rising Stars in Insurance (VIC)

David commenced his career in claims in 1991 and has worked in all classes of Short Tall Claims. He previously held the position of Head of Property Claims at QBE and commenced his position as Head of Claims with CHU in March 2022.

David is a Senior Associate of ANZIIF and is a Charted Loss Adjuster for AICLA. He is also member of the Insurance Council CAT Panel, the ANZIIF Claims Faculty Board, and the AICLA Claims Conference Committee.

Shane’s Insurance Broking career began back in 2009 when he began working with a small family brokerage based in Dandenong, VIC. As a new entrant to the broking industry and a strong drive to succeed professionally, Shane was determined to work as hard as he could to fast track his development and to learn the fundamental skills needed to excel in the insurance broking space.

Shane's strong work ethic and relentless drive to succeed has seen him accumulate a wealth of knowledge and experience across his career and helped him become an expert level broker. Now almost 15 years on he runs a boutique broking practice specialising in providing commercial clients with high level risk advice and broking services.

Shane has enjoyed a decorated broking career that includes more than 10 individual awards and accolades from industry bodies such as NIBA, ANZIIF, Insurance Business and Advisor. He’s always loved helping others within the industry and has become a strong influence and mentor to those among the Young Professional community.

Megan is a co-founder of Mitti Insurance, a tech led, data driven insurance company aiming to challenge the traditional insurance model for small to medium businesses, with a key focus on risk mitigation to reduce the frequency and severity of claims. She currently leads the Sales & Underwriting team at Mitti Insurance.

Megan holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Graduate Certificate in Insurance and Risk Management from Deakin University.

With over 15 years’ experience in the industry, Megan has worked across various roles in Claims, Underwriting, eBusiness Solutions, Distribution and Broking. With her diverse industry background, she and the Mitti team have created a solid platform to ensure it is customer led in driving value.

She’s very proud of what the Mitti team has achieved, including being named the Insurtech Start-Up of the Year at the 2022 ANZIIF Australian Insurance Industry Awards together with being named one of the Insurance Business Australia Young Guns in 2021.

Outside of work, Megan enjoys travelling with her family, encouraging her two daughters in their performing and sporting endeavours, and energising and activating her mind at her daily F45 Balwyn gym class.

Kate is a multi award winning insurance broker based in regional Victoria with 14 years experience in broking and underwriting. She launched Macedon Ranges Insurance in September 2020 as an AR with the PSC Network, and within 2 years she had hired two staff members and hit $1mil GWP.

Kate and her team pride themselves on putting the clients’ first and helping them make informed decisions about insurance and risk. She and her team have 8 children aged 1-5 so professionalism does look a little different some days, but in a post-COVID world Kate has found that clients value the quality of the advice more than being in the office 9-5.

A born philanthropist, at age 19 Jessica Jenkins became the youngest elected representative and Deputy Mayor in 2003. Committed to dedicating her term to the youth of her municipality also Jessica was also named as Young Citizen of the year that same year.

Continuing her award-winning track record in her 21st year in the Insurance Industry, Jessica was named as Insurance Business Magazine’s Elite Women, Underwriting Agency BDM of the year in 2022 and 5 star BDM year of the year in 2021 and 2022.

Holding several leadership and National relationship roles specialising in the development of go to market and growth strategies & marketing Mrs Jenkins holds an extensive track record of insurance industry and relationship management experience. In her role as relationship manager, she is responsible for developing healthy, productive partnerships as well as nurturing and building the company’s existing key relationships with brokers.

“My goal is to encourage the wonderful women in our industry to lean in, believe in ourselves, and empower each other to be and do the best we can,” says Jenkins. “It is OK to make mistakes and fail. Through failure, life’s greatest lessons are learnt. It’s through failure that we build a platform for great success.”