35 Essential Insurance Thought Leaders AU and NZ

Introduction

The insurance industry rarely gets credit for how much of our economy it holds together. Without it, the housing market stops. The construction industry stalls. Small businesses cannot take risks. And communities devastated by floods, fires, or cyclones have nowhere to turn. Every time you see a company rebuild after a disaster or a family replace what a storm destroyed, you are seeing the insurance sector at work in the background. What most people do not see is the conversation happening inside that sector, the debate about affordability, the tension between innovation and trust, the challenge of insuring assets in an era of accelerating climate change, and the question of who gets left behind when premiums outpace incomes.

Australia and New Zealand are grappling with these questions more acutely than almost any comparable pair of nations. The Insurance Council of Australia reports that extreme weather events have cost insurers more than $22.5 billion over the past five years, averaging $4.5 billion per year and increasing by 67 percent compared to the prior five-year period. In New Zealand, successive natural disasters including the 2023 Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle have triggered the most significant rethink of how the country approaches natural disaster risk since the Canterbury earthquakes. The people navigating these pressures are not simply executives managing balance sheets. They are advocates, innovators, regulators, and reformers who are actively shaping how two of the world's most disaster-exposed nations think about risk, resilience, and financial protection.

This directory profiles 35 of the most influential thought leaders currently shaping insurance across Australia and New Zealand. They represent the breadth of the sector: general insurance, life insurance, health insurance, insurtech, broking, regulation, actuarial science, and claims management. Whether you lead an insurer, manage a broker network, work in government, or simply want to understand who is genuinely driving the industry's most important conversations in 2026, this is your starting point.

Jonno White, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works with insurance leadership teams who want to build the organisational culture and communication capabilities to lead through complexity. When the industry faces the pressures that these thought leaders are navigating, the ability to lead your team through difficult conversations and make aligned decisions becomes as important as technical expertise. To discuss how Jonno can work with your insurance leadership team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Insurance Thought Leadership Matters

Following the wrong voices in any industry is expensive. In insurance, it can be catastrophic. The sector is navigating a convergence of forces that would be challenging independently and that together represent a genuine inflection point: accelerating climate risk is making some assets increasingly expensive or impossible to insure; AI is reshaping underwriting, claims processing, and customer experience simultaneously; regulatory frameworks like APRA's CPS 230 are demanding new standards of operational risk management; and a softening premium cycle is compressing margins at precisely the moment when investment in technology and capability is most needed.

The thought leaders on this list are not all saying the same things. Some are optimistic about technology's capacity to solve the affordability problem. Others are sounding alarms about the speed at which underinsurance is spreading, particularly among lower-income households and in high-risk geographies. Some are pushing hard on diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage. Others are warning that the industry's public trust problem will not be solved by innovation alone. The tension between these perspectives is where the most important conversations are happening. Reading this list is not about finding people who agree. It is about finding the voices that will help you think more clearly about one of the most complex industries on earth.

If you are building an insurance leadership team that can hold its own in this environment, Jonno White delivers keynotes and facilitation that give executive teams the frameworks to make better decisions together. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss how Jonno works with financial services and insurance organisations.

How This List Was Compiled

This directory was compiled by reviewing the leading sources of insurance thought leadership across Australia and New Zealand, including the ANZIIF Journal, Insurance Business magazine, Insurance News, conference speaker lists from the ICA Annual Conference, NIBA Convention, ANZIIF New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards, and InsurtechLIVE. We evaluated candidates against their demonstrated contribution to public discourse, whether through published commentary, keynote presentations, policy engagement, or sector-shaping initiatives. We prioritised geographic and disciplinary diversity, ensuring the list spans both sides of the Tasman and includes voices from general insurance, life insurance, health insurance, broking, insurtech, regulation, and actuarial work. Each person on this list has contributed something beyond their job description to how the industry thinks about its future.

Category 1: Peak Body and Advocacy Leaders

These are the voices who speak for entire sectors of the insurance industry, shape regulatory conversations, and set the agenda for what the profession collectively prioritises. Their platforms are the biggest in the industry, and their public commentary carries weight far beyond their own organisations.

1. Andrew Hall

When Australia's general insurance sector needs a voice in Canberra, in the media, or at international forums, Andrew Hall provides it. As CEO and Executive Director of the Insurance Council of Australia since 2020, Hall has led the sector's response to some of the most significant natural disasters in Australian history and steered the industry's engagement with government on the twin priorities of insurance affordability and climate risk mitigation. His background spans journalism, federal politics, retail, and banking, giving him an unusually cross-disciplinary perspective on how to translate complex insurance issues into public policy outcomes.

Hall's most significant public advocacy has focused on the sobering projection that extreme weather events could cost Australia $35.2 billion per year by 2050, and his insistence that the industry must act on the underlying risk drivers rather than simply pass costs to policyholders. His 2025 opening remarks at the ICA Annual Dinner, which addressed mitigation, government collaboration, and the financial shock absorber role of insurance, crystallised the sector's position in a politically contested moment. His LinkedIn posts are active, frequent, and substantive, engaging directly with policy questions rather than simply broadcasting organisational announcements.

2. Katrina Shanks

Katrina Shanks leads the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF), the region's foremost professional development and membership body for insurance and finance professionals, as its CEO since January 2024. A former two-term New Zealand Member of Parliament and Chartered Accountant, Shanks brings a combination of legislative understanding, financial expertise, and professional standards experience that is rare at the leadership level of any professional body. Her appointment followed the expansion of ANZIIF's educational programs in response to the government flooding inquiry recommendations, and she has since accelerated the organisation's commitment to lifelong learning standards across both countries.

Shanks is actively building the credibility and connectivity of the ANZIIF community across the Asia-Pacific region, as evidenced by her leadership of the 2025 ANZIIF New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards, which drew more than 450 insurance professionals to Cordis Auckland. Her LinkedIn activity reflects regular engagement with industry events, regulatory updates, and professional development themes. She maintains strong posting frequency since taking the role, and her commentary bridges the AU and NZ markets in ways few other leaders can credibly do.

3. Richard Klipin

Richard Klipin became CEO of the National Insurance Brokers Association in March 2024, bringing with him a track record of leading professional associations through periods of significant change in financial services. Before joining NIBA, Klipin led the Financial Services Council of New Zealand and the Association of Financial Advisers in Australia, giving him rare cross-Tasman credibility in advocacy and member representation. Under his leadership, NIBA has published its landmark "Ready or Reacting?" report, a decade-long strategic forecast that has set the agenda for how Australian insurance brokers think about their own future.

Klipin's regular column in Insurance Business Australia, his consistent LinkedIn commentary on broker-specific issues, and his advocacy with policymakers during Australia's federal election cycle have established him as the most consistently audible broker sector voice in the country. His framing of the broker as a "trusted advisor" in an increasingly complex risk environment, particularly in the context of natural hazards, affordability pressures, and regulatory change, has resonated with a profession that is actively negotiating its identity in an era of digital disruption.

4. Jenny Bax

Jenny Bax has led the Underwriting Agencies Council into one of the most active professional bodies in Australian insurance, with more than 130 members and a growing network of business service firms. Her leadership has coincided with a period of significant growth in the underwriting agency sector, driven by member firms seeking more direct market access and greater agility than the traditional insurer model allows. Bax speaks plainly and often about what it takes to build high-performing teams in insurance, the importance of mentoring the next generation, and the competitive advantages that nimble, customer-focused underwriting agencies have over larger incumbents.

Bax has been vocal about wanting to mentor and support women and emerging professionals to see the career opportunities in insurance, stating publicly that she wants to help pave the way for anyone who is "inquisitive and ready to challenge the status quo." Her orientation toward solving problems rather than managing bureaucracy has defined how she leads and how she talks about the underwriting agency sector as a distinct and important force in the Australian market. Her LinkedIn presence is consistent and she actively engages with others in the UAC community.

5. Christine Cupitt

Christine Cupitt is the CEO of the Council of Australian Life Insurers, the peak body representing life insurers in Australia, where she has been a consistent voice on the intersection of life insurance, superannuation, and social policy. Life insurance through superannuation currently protects approximately 8.8 million Australians, and Cupitt's work sits at the centre of debates about who those protections cover, how well they work, and what reforms are needed to ensure the system remains sustainable and trusted. Her commentary at the 2025 ASFA Conference alongside other life insurance CEOs addressed the future of group insurance in superannuation in a period of significant structural change.

Cupitt engages regularly with Treasury, ASIC, and APRA on life insurance regulation, and her public commentary is consistently grounded in consumer outcomes rather than purely industry defence. She has been a voice for the sector during difficult moments, including debates about claims handling practices and product design, and has worked to reframe life insurance as a social safety net rather than a product category. Her LinkedIn activity is moderate but consistent, with a focus on policy and consumer protection themes.

Category 2: Major Insurer Leaders

These executives run some of the largest general and life insurance operations in Australia and New Zealand. Their decisions shape the market, their public positions set the agenda, and their leadership styles influence tens of thousands of industry professionals.

6. Nick Hawkins

Nick Hawkins has led IAG, Australia's largest general insurer by gross written premium, as Managing Director and CEO since November 2020. IAG operates across Australia and New Zealand through brands including NRMA Insurance, CGU, AMI, NZI, and Lumley, and serves as the financial backbone of household and commercial insurance for millions of people in both countries. Hawkins's leadership has been defined by operational discipline during a period of significant natural hazard losses and inflationary pressure, delivering strong first-half 2026 results that reflected both premium growth and improved weather outcomes.

Under Hawkins, IAG has pursued a sustained growth strategy including a $1.3 billion acquisition of RAC Western Australia's insurance underwriting business and a 25-year exclusive alliance with RACQ in Queensland, moves that cement IAG's dominance in key state markets. His public commentary on the role of insurance as "an economic shock absorber" for communities facing extreme weather events has been consistent with the ICA's broader advocacy framing. His LinkedIn activity reflects a mix of results announcements and corporate milestones at the leadership of Australia's largest general insurer.

7. Sue Houghton

Sue Houghton's leadership of QBE Australia Pacific makes her one of the most influential women in Australian financial services. As CEO since August 2021, she has driven QBE's regional strategy through a period of significant market volatility, operational transformation, and cultural change. Her commitment to gender equity in insurance leadership is practical rather than symbolic: she co-founded LiiFT (Leaders in Insurance for Tomorrow), an industry-wide mentoring program involving senior women from Suncorp, QBE, IAG, Gallagher, Aon, Hollard, and National Transport Insurance to mentor women at business leader level. She is also a member of the Champions of Change Coalition and has been a past President of the Insurance Council of Australia.

Houghton's most publicly recognised initiative in 2025 was QBE's award-winning Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programme, Respect@QBE, which won at the IB Awards Australia 2025. Her approach to leadership, which combines financial rigour with genuine investment in people and culture, makes her one of the sector's most credible voices on how to build high-performing insurance organisations in a complex market.

8. Jimmy Higgins

Jimmy Higgins is CEO of Suncorp New Zealand and one of the most important voices on insurance resilience and natural disaster risk in Aotearoa. His advocacy for a more resilient New Zealand has been grounded in direct experience: Higgins was personally instrumental in managing Suncorp's response to the Canterbury earthquakes after joining the NZ business in 2012, and he later helped design the country's new Natural Disaster Response Model, recognised by the ANZIIF Insurance Leader of the Year Award in 2021. In 2024, he was invited by the New Zealand government to serve as the insurance expert on the independent reference group advising on climate adaptation policy.

Higgins speaks with unusual authority on the gap between what insurance can do and what government and communities need to do to address underlying risk. His framing of insurance affordability as a function of land use decisions and building standards rather than purely insurer pricing has been influential in NZ policy circles. As a Board member of the Insurance Council of New Zealand, he has been central to the industry's representation during the country's most significant insurance reform period in a generation.

9. Nathaniel Pitt

Nathaniel Pitt has led Youi as CEO since July 2023, steering one of Australia's most successful challenger insurance brands through a period of significant market softening and competitive intensity. Before becoming CEO, Pitt served in several senior executive roles at Youi including Chief Product Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and Chief Customer and Innovation Officer, giving him an unusually complete view of how a challenger insurer builds market share through customer experience and product innovation. Youi's brand identity, built on responsive customer service and digitally native operations, reflects the leadership philosophy Pitt has developed from the inside.

His promotion from within rather than an external hire signals a commitment to the culture and operating model that has differentiated Youi from larger incumbents. As one of the few challenger insurer CEOs with a sustained public voice, Pitt's commentary on what customers actually want from insurance, as distinct from what incumbents have traditionally offered, adds a perspective that is often missing from industry conversations dominated by the major players.

10. Blair Turnbull

Blair Turnbull leads Tower Insurance in New Zealand as CEO, running one of the country's most recognised general insurance brands through a period of sustained transformation. Tower has delivered standout financial performance under Turnbull's leadership, winning the Deloitte Top 200 Most Improved Performance Award for 2025, a recognition that reflects significant operational and strategic progress. Under his leadership, Tower has invested heavily in digital capability, risk-based pricing, and geospatial data technology, pursuing a strategy of becoming one of the most analytically sophisticated personal lines insurers in the region.

Tower's Local Heroes programme, which Turnbull has championed as a vehicle for community recognition, illustrates a CEO who understands that insurance is fundamentally a community institution, not just a financial product. His public commentary on the New Zealand market covers topics including climate resilience, technology investment, and the future of direct insurance distribution. Turnbull is a Board member of the Insurance Council of New Zealand and an active voice in the NZ insurance community.

Category 3: Insurtech and Innovation Leaders

The most significant changes in how insurance is designed, distributed, and delivered are being driven by a generation of technology leaders who are building new products, new infrastructure, and new market models. These are the people disrupting the sector from the inside.

11. Simone Dossetor

Simone Dossetor is CEO of Insurtech Australia, the peak body representing Australia's insurance technology and innovation ecosystem, and the most visible connector between the country's emerging insurtech founders and the established insurance market. Before joining Insurtech Australia in 2021, she was Chief Operating Officer of Munich Re Group in Australasia, giving her a global reinsurance perspective that few pure-play tech advocates can claim. Under her leadership, Insurtech Australia has grown into a community of more than 100 member companies, hosted the annual sellout InsurtechLIVE conference, and led international trade missions to London, Singapore, and other major insurance centres.

Dossetor's work building bridges between Australian insurtechs and established insurers, reinsurers, and regulators has been recognised as strategically important by ANZIIF. Her commentary on the 2025 insurtech landscape, published in the Asia Insurance Review, provided one of the most balanced assessments of where Australian innovation is actually landing in a global context. She is one of the sector's most consistently active LinkedIn posters, engaging with startups, incumbents, and global peers in equal measure.

12. Tetiana George

Tetiana George is CEO of Curium, a compliance software company operating across Australia and New Zealand that has become one of the sector's most recognised technology providers in the regulatory space. George was identified in Insurance Business's 2025 research as one of the executives characterising the current moment in insurance technology as "unprecedented, both in terms of regulations and technology." Curium's platform addresses the intersection of regulatory compliance and insurance operations, a niche that has become strategically important with the July 2025 launch of APRA's CPS 230 Prudential Standard, which imposes rigorous operational risk management requirements on APRA-regulated entities including insurers.

George speaks with authority on the regulatory technology gap in Australian financial services, the challenge of translating compliance obligations into operational practice, and the specific challenge of scaling tech solutions across the AU/NZ market. Her LinkedIn engagement is frequent and substantive, mixing product announcements with genuine industry commentary. She has participated in multiple Insurance News events as a panel speaker, and her profile within the insurtech community continues to grow as CPS 230 obligations deepen.

13. Samantha White

Samantha White is Chair of Freedom Services Group and CEO of Stella Insurance, a challenger insurer specifically designed for and by women, and one of the most compelling entrepreneurial voices in the Australian insurance market. White founded her first business at 24 and built Freedom Services Group into a significant player in insurance distribution before adding Stella Insurance to her portfolio. Stella Insurance was built on the observation that women pay more for insurance products designed around male risk profiles, and the company has developed products, pricing, and customer experience specifically calibrated to women's needs and risk patterns.

Her 2025 InsurtechLIVE keynote framing, which positioned innovation as the capacity to build insurance around actual customer need rather than historical convention, was described by event organisers as one of the most energising opening addresses the conference has seen. White's LinkedIn activity reflects a willingness to engage substantively with both industry debates and broader conversations about entrepreneurship, gender, and business building. She brings an authenticity to the innovation conversation that pure-play technology leaders sometimes lack.

14. Rob Ellis

Rob Ellis is co-founder and CEO of Sentro, a New Zealand-based insurtech that has built technology infrastructure for embedding and distributing insurance products at scale. Sentro's platform enables any business, from membership associations to employers and affinity groups, to create and distribute tailored insurance products to their customer base without needing the technical infrastructure of a licensed insurer. The company has expanded from New Zealand into Australia and has been represented at international insurtech events including Insurtech Week in London, where Sentro pitched alongside other top-tier global insurtechs.

Ellis brings a product-first perspective on insurance that challenges traditional distribution assumptions, arguing that the future of insurance is embedded rather than retail, and that the winners will be the platforms that make insurance frictionless rather than those that make it comprehensive. His LinkedIn activity is regular and characteristically direct, mixing product updates with original thinking about the future of insurance distribution. His presence at international forums gives him a broader frame of reference than many NZ-based insurance voices.

15. Skye Theodorou

Skye Theodorou is CEO of Upcover, a digital-first small business insurance platform that is addressing one of the most persistent underinsurance gaps in the Australian market: the micro and small business segment. Upcover has been recognised at Insurance News technology events as one of the most focused examples of what a purpose-built digital insurer can do in a segment that traditional carriers have consistently underserved. Theodorou's leadership reflects a clear thesis: that small business insurance has been priced, designed, and distributed as if small businesses were miniature corporations, when their actual needs and price sensitivity require a fundamentally different approach.

Her participation in the Insurance News technology event CEO panel alongside IAG and Suncorp's respective CIOs signalled the recognition that Upcover has earned in a market still dominated by incumbents. Her LinkedIn activity is growing and focused on the small business insurance conversation, where she brings lived entrepreneurial experience alongside technical insurance knowledge. She is one of the most active LinkedIn posters among the insurtech founders represented on this list.

16. Rene Swindley

Rene Swindley is co-founder of Initio, a New Zealand home insurance technology company that has been recognised as one of the most innovative businesses in Aotearoa. Initio won the Deloitte Fast 50 Central North Island award in 2025 for being the fastest-growing services business, and has been named MoneyHub's Favourite Home Insurance Quote Platform. The platform delivers insurance quotes in under six seconds using geospatial data from Land Information NZ to provide high-quality risk assessments, setting a new benchmark for direct home insurance in the New Zealand market.

Swindley was recognised by ANZIIF as the 2018 Young Insurance Professional of the Year, and his trajectory since that recognition has validated the early assessment of his potential. His LinkedIn engagement reflects a founder's perspective on building in a highly regulated industry, and his commentary on technology, innovation, and customer experience in insurance brings a genuine product-builder's voice to a conversation often dominated by corporate executives. His NZ base means he is underrepresented in Australian-focused insurance media, making him a fresh voice for Australian audiences.

Category 4: Regulatory and Governance Voices

Insurance does not function without the regulatory architecture that defines what products can exist, how they must be designed, and how disputes must be resolved. These are the voices shaping that architecture.

17. Kris Faafoi

Kris Faafoi has led the Insurance Council of New Zealand as CEO since April 2024, bringing an unusual credential set to the role: he is a former Cabinet minister who held portfolios including justice, commerce and consumer affairs, immigration, and broadcasting. Before entering politics, he was a prominent television journalist. His appointment by ICNZ reflected the recognition that insurance's most pressing challenges are fundamentally political, regulatory, and reputational, not just commercial. In a year that has included the country's most significant flood events in a generation and sustained debate about insurance affordability and climate adaptation, Faafoi has led an industry facing public scrutiny while also advocating for reforms that protect the sector's long-term viability.

Faafoi's background in media and politics gives him a communication skill set that is rare among peak body CEOs. His public commentary bridges the world of insurance policy and political reality in ways that are genuinely useful for a sector that needs to make its case to both government and community. His LinkedIn presence is developing as he continues to settle into the role, and his ability to engage both inside and outside the insurance industry gives him an unusually broad platform.

18. Jane Magill

Jane Magill is Executive Director of General Insurance and Banking at APRA, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, making her one of the most senior insurance regulators in the country. Her keynote at the 2025 Future of Insurance conference, titled "Facing into the Future: Strategies for Readiness," addressed the implications of the July 2025 launch of CPS 230, APRA's cross-industry operational risk standard. Magill's public commentary has consistently emphasised that the regulatory agenda is not about compliance theatre but about building genuinely more resilient financial institutions, and she has been direct about where she sees the insurance industry falling short on readiness.

Her engagement at industry events reflects APRA's deliberate strategy of being a more communicative regulator, sharing supervisory expectations in public forums rather than only through confidential correspondence. Her contributions to the Future of Insurance conference and similar events make her one of the few regulators whose public commentary is sought after by the industry rather than merely tolerated. She brings a regulator's rigour to some of the sector's most important strategic conversations.

19. Rachael David

Rachael David is the CEO of the Private Health Insurance Association of Australia, representing private health insurers in a sector that covers approximately 15 million Australians with hospital, extras, or combined cover. Health insurance sits at one of the most contested intersections of private markets and public policy in Australia, and David navigates the complexities of premium affordability, claims cost management, hospital negotiations, and government regulation with consistent public engagement. Her commentary in 2025 and 2026 has reflected the growing pressure on private health insurance as cost-of-living pressures push members to downgrade or drop cover.

David's advocacy work covers the policy changes that would most meaningfully improve health insurance affordability and sustainability, including hospital pricing reform and better integration between public and private health systems. Her public profile at parliamentary hearings, media appearances, and industry forums has made her one of the most recognisable voices in Australian health insurance policy. Her LinkedIn activity is consistent and primarily focused on the health insurance policy conversation.

20. Karl Sullivan

Karl Sullivan is Head of Risk and Operations at the Insurance Council of Australia, where he has been one of the most consistent technical voices on natural perils, catastrophe response, and insurance resilience policy. Sullivan's work on climate risk, building codes, land use planning, and disaster mitigation has contributed directly to ICA's advocacy for a different approach to Australia's growing natural hazard exposure. His expertise sits at the intersection of insurance risk assessment and public policy, making him one of the few people in Australia who can speak credibly to both the financial modelling of natural perils and the regulatory levers that would most effectively reduce them.

His public commentary on the insurance gap in flood-prone and high-risk-fire communities has been consistent and grounded in data, avoiding the politicisation that often distorts this conversation. Sullivan has spoken at national conferences and contributed to research on insurance affordability and accessibility that has informed government inquiries. His LinkedIn activity reflects his engagement with the industry's technical and policy community.

Category 5: Broking and Distribution Leaders

Insurance brokers are the primary interface between complex risk and the businesses and individuals who need to manage it. These leaders are defining what excellent broking looks like in an era of technological disruption and mounting client complexity.

21. Kevan Johnston

Kevan Johnston leads Aon Australia as Chief Executive, running the Australian operations of one of the world's largest professional services firms operating in risk, reinsurance, and human capital management. Aon's position in the Australian market spans commercial broking, risk management, reinsurance intermediary services, and employee benefits consulting, making Johnston's perspective one of the broadest in the entire financial services ecosystem. His participation in the Outlook 2026 CEO panel alongside AIG's Kathleen Warden and Allianz's Julie Mitchell gave him a platform to discuss both the macro forces affecting the industry and the strategic positioning of professional services firms within a softening market.

Johnston's LinkedIn engagement is consistent with his role as a senior market leader, reflecting commentary on global risk trends, market conditions, and Aon's strategic priorities. He brings a global reinsurance and risk management perspective that complements the more locally focused voices on this list. For organisations navigating complex commercial insurance arrangements, his is one of the most credible voices on how the market is actually moving.

22. Tremayne West

Tremayne West is Director of the Australian Broker Network, one of the country's most significant broker aggregation and support networks, and was among the first voices quoted in Insurance Business's 2025 Hot List research on what defines the industry's top performers. His articulation that experience, adaptability, and authenticity, along with the ability to transfer knowledge and build the next generation of insurance experts, are the core of high performance reads like a manifesto for what broking leadership should aspire to. West's commentary on the shift of client relationships to social media and web-based platforms, and the need for interpersonal skills to remain central to broking, has resonated strongly with a profession navigating digital transformation.

His perspective on the broker value proposition in an era when clients arrive pre-armed with internet research is particularly useful for broker leaders who are rethinking how to communicate and demonstrate their expertise. His LinkedIn activity is consistent and his engagement with both emerging technology and timeless client relationship principles makes him a balanced voice for the broking community and a useful counterweight to purely technology-focused industry commentary.

23. Kathleen Warden

Kathleen Warden is CEO of AIG Australia, leading the local operations of one of the world's most significant commercial insurers with a portfolio spanning financial lines, property, casualty, and specialty coverage. Her participation in the Outlook 2026 CEO panel alongside Aon's Kevan Johnston and Allianz's Julie Mitchell reflected her standing as one of the most credible voices on the commercial lines market in Australia. AIG's global reach gives Warden a perspective on risk trends that is genuinely international in scope, covering cyber, D&O, climate liability, and emerging risk categories that are reshaping commercial insurance globally.

Warden's public commentary tends toward the substantive rather than the promotional, engaging with real market dynamics including the softening cycle, the implications of AI for commercial risk, and the growing exposure of Australian businesses to cyber threats. Her engagement at Insurance News's Outlook events has been consistent and valued by the professional audience that attends them. Her LinkedIn presence reflects her active involvement at industry events and conferences throughout the year.

Category 6: Life, Health, and Wellbeing Insurance Voices

Life and health insurance operates at the intersection of financial services and social policy in ways that general insurance does not. These thought leaders are navigating the specific challenges of protecting Australian and New Zealand lives and health in an era of rising costs, complex claims, and evolving social expectations.

24. Fiona Macgregor

Fiona Macgregor is CEO of TAL, one of Australia's largest life insurers, and has been one of the most consistently prominent life insurance executives in the country. TAL's role in the group insurance through superannuation ecosystem, which provides life, total and permanent disability, and income protection cover to millions of Australians through their superannuation funds, makes Macgregor's commentary highly consequential. Her participation in the 2025 ASFA Conference panel on the future of group insurance alongside AIA CEO Damian Mu and Zurich CEO Justin Delaney positioned her as a central figure in the industry's conversation about how life insurance through super must evolve.

Macgregor's public engagement covers both the technical challenges of managing a large, diversified life insurance book and the philosophical questions about what life insurance is for and who it should serve. She has engaged with regulators, super funds, and consumer advocates on the need for clear, accessible product design and fair claims handling. Her LinkedIn presence reflects her active engagement with the sector and her commitment to the long-term sustainability of life insurance in Australia.

25. Damian Mu

Damian Mu leads AIA Australia as CEO, running the local operations of one of Asia-Pacific's largest life insurance groups. AIA's business model in Australia combines individual retail life insurance with group insurance arrangements through employers and superannuation funds, giving Mu oversight of a portfolio that touches millions of Australians at different life stages. His participation in the 2025 ASFA Conference panel on the future of group insurance alongside TAL's Fiona Macgregor and Zurich's Justin Delaney reflected his standing as one of the sector's leading executive voices on the group risk market.

AIA's "Healthiest Nation" purpose, which frames the insurer's mission as improving Australians' health rather than merely paying claims, represents a genuine philosophical shift in how life insurance thinks about its social contract. Mu's commentary has consistently pushed this agenda, connecting AIA's commercial interests with population health outcomes in a way that is credible rather than merely marketing. His LinkedIn activity reflects engagement with both life insurance policy and broader health and wellbeing themes.

26. Naomi Ballantyne

Naomi Ballantyne is arguably the most significant figure in the history of New Zealand life insurance, having founded or co-founded three of the largest life insurance companies in the country over a 42-year career: Sovereign (now AIA), Club Life (now Chubb), and Partners Life, which she founded in 2010 and sold to Dai-ichi Life for more than one billion dollars in 2023. She retired from Partners Life as Managing Director in March 2024 and now serves as a board member of Tower Insurance New Zealand, speaker, and mentor. She is an inductee in the Company of Women Female Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, recipient of the ANZIIF Lifetime Achievement Award, and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Her public commentary since retiring from Partners Life has focused on entrepreneurship, the challenges of building businesses in male-dominated industries, and the importance of the financial advice channel in ensuring New Zealanders have adequate life risk protection. As a sought-after keynote speaker who speaks candidly about both her successes and her mistakes, her thought leadership now operates outside the confines of a single organisation and is more freely expressed than at any point in her career. She is the first woman in New Zealand to have sold a founder-built business for over one billion dollars.

27. Brianna Cattanach

Brianna Cattanach is National Manager of Mental Health Strategy and Delivery at Allianz Australia, and one of the most distinctive voices in the Australian insurance conversation about workforce wellbeing and psychological claims. Her participation as a featured panellist at Insurance News's Outlook 2026 conference on the "psychological claims crisis" reflects her standing as the industry's most expert voice on how mental health is reshaping workers' compensation, personal injury claims, and employee insurance products. Allianz Australia has been recognised for its investment in mental health capability, and Cattanach's leadership of that programme gives her an unusually deep evidence base for the positions she takes.

Her commentary on the gap between how insurers currently handle psychological claims and how they should handle them is both technically grounded and practically urgent for a sector that is seeing escalating mental health claim volumes. She is a genuinely specialist voice on a topic that sits at the intersection of insurance, employment law, clinical psychology, and workforce management. Her LinkedIn activity reflects her active engagement with both the insurance and mental health professional communities.

Category 7: Climate, Risk, and Emerging Voices

Insurance sits on the front line of climate change's economic consequences in ways no other financial sector does. These leaders are grappling with the most urgent and difficult questions about what insurance can sustainably cover in an era of accelerating climate risk, and what happens to communities and economies when it cannot.

28. Mark Leplastrier

Mark Leplastrier leads IAG's natural perils research and climate resilience work as one of Australia's foremost technical authorities on the intersection of insurance and natural disaster risk. His research on climate risk, natural hazard modelling, and the insurance implications of extreme weather events has informed both IAG's underwriting strategy and the broader public policy conversation about what Australia needs to do to remain insurable. Leplastrier's work sits at the boundary between insurance risk management and climate science, a boundary that is increasingly where the most consequential decisions about insurance affordability and accessibility are being made.

His commentary on how land use decisions, building standards, and mitigation investment interact with insurance premiums has been particularly influential, translating complex modelling outputs into accessible public policy arguments. He has contributed to ICA's climate risk advocacy work and participated in academic and industry forums on natural perils. His LinkedIn engagement reflects his focus on the technical and policy dimensions of climate and insurance risk management.

29. Joanna Aldridge

Joanna Aldridge is QBE's Group Head of Catastrophe Research, and one of Australia's leading technical experts on the quantification and management of catastrophe risk in insurance portfolios. Her participation in Insurance News's technology events as a specialist on data and analytics in catastrophe modelling reflects her standing as the most publicly visible technical voice on cat risk in Australian insurance. Her work involves synthesising climate science, geospatial data, and actuarial modelling into frameworks that underwriters and portfolio managers can use to price and manage catastrophe exposure.

As climate change accelerates the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the expertise that Aldridge brings becomes more strategically important across the market. Her ability to communicate complex risk modelling concepts to non-technical audiences makes her valuable beyond purely technical forums. She is one of the few genuinely specialist researchers from within a major Australian insurer who is regularly engaged in public industry conversations rather than confined to internal advisory roles.

30. Diego Ascani

Diego Ascani is CEO of Sedgwick Australia, the Australian arm of one of the world's largest claims management and risk services companies, and was the Platinum Dinner Sponsor CEO at the ICA's 2025 Annual Dinner. Sedgwick's position as a major third-party administrator and claims management provider gives Ascani a perspective on claims handling and customer experience that is both operationally grounded and strategically broad. Sedgwick operates at the intersection of insurer performance and customer experience in claims, a space that has become one of the most scrutinised in Australian insurance following the government's flooding inquiry recommendations.

His commentary on the future of claims management, including the application of AI and technology to improve claims speed and accuracy while maintaining human empathy at critical moments, reflects Sedgwick's global positioning as a technology-enabled claims services provider. His participation in ICA's annual dinner as a major sponsor of substantive industry gatherings signals Sedgwick's strategic investment in the Australian market's leadership conversations. His LinkedIn activity reflects engagement with the claims professional community and broader insurance leadership themes.

31. Phil Gibson

Phil Gibson became CEO of IAG New Zealand in February 2026, responsible for New Zealand's largest general insurer, operating under the AMI, State, NZI, Lumley, and Lantern brands, as well as providing general insurance to ASB, BNZ, Westpac, and The Co-operative Bank. Before joining IAG, Gibson was a Senior Executive Advisor at Accenture and an active insurtech advisor, board member, and investor, giving him a perspective on innovation and digital transformation that complements IAG's scale and market position. He brings more than 30 years of experience in personal and commercial insurance businesses across the United States and Canada.

His appointment to IAG New Zealand at a moment of significant market and regulatory change positions him as one of the most influential new voices in the country's insurance sector. His background as an insurtech advisor gives him credibility with both the established market and the innovation community. His entry on this list reflects the significance of the role he now holds and the distinctive global perspective he brings to a market that is actively renegotiating its relationship with risk, climate, and regulatory reform.

32. Amanda Whiting

Amanda Whiting served as CEO of IAG New Zealand for four and a half years before transitioning in February 2026 to a newly created Group Executive role for Enterprise Growth and Simplification at IAG's parent company in Australia. During her time leading IAG New Zealand, she served as President of the Insurance Council of New Zealand and was a central figure in the industry's response to Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary floods. Her cross-Tasman perspective, developed through leadership roles on both sides of the Tasman, gives her a rare ability to connect the strategic priorities of a global insurer with the specific conditions of the New Zealand market.

Whiting is a member of Global Women and Champions for Change in New Zealand, and Chief Executive Women in Australia, reflecting her active investment in gender equity as both a personal commitment and a business priority. Her move to the IAG Group Executive team signals both her own career trajectory and IAG's investment in a leader who has delivered results in a complex and challenging market. Her LinkedIn activity has been consistent throughout her leadership tenure.

33. James Fleet

James Fleet is Executive Manager at Fidelity Life, New Zealand's largest locally owned life insurer, and was named the ANZIIF Young Insurance Professional of the Year at the 2025 New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards in Auckland. That recognition reflects the regard in which the NZ insurance community holds his contribution, both within Fidelity Life and more broadly through his engagement with industry professional development initiatives. Fleet's perspective on life insurance, financial advice, and the professional standards of the sector represents the emerging leadership generation of NZ insurance, whose approach to technology, customer trust, and professional ethics will define the industry's next decade.

His inclusion here reflects the deliberate decision to include not only established leaders but voices that are actively shaping the future rather than managing the present. Fleet's engagement with ANZIIF's professional development programs and his recognition as New Zealand's Young Insurance Professional of the Year positions him as a voice worth engaging now, and one whose influence will only grow as his career progresses and his contributions to the sector deepen.

34. Jason Little

Jason Little is co-founder and Managing Director of Blue Zebra Insurance, an Australian managing general agent that has built a reputation as one of the most technologically sophisticated underwriting agencies in the market. Blue Zebra operates in the personal lines and commercial lines space, providing broker-distributed products through a technology platform that prioritises speed, accuracy, and ease of business. Little was among the insurtech representatives featured at InsurtechLIVE and has been recognised within the Insurtech Australia community for building a genuinely scalable technology business at the intersection of the traditional insurance market and modern distribution.

His perspective on what it takes to build an MGA in the Australian market, navigating the requirements of licensed insurers, broker networks, and regulatory compliance while also investing in the technology infrastructure that differentiates the business, is genuinely instructive for anyone in insurance distribution or product development. His LinkedIn engagement reflects his involvement in the insurtech community and his commentary on the underwriting agency sector. Blue Zebra represents a new generation of distribution-focused insurtechs that are reshaping how products reach the market.

35. Jonno White

The thought leaders on this list spend their professional lives grappling with the questions that define a high-stakes, high-complexity industry: how do you lead teams through uncertainty? How do you have the difficult conversations that the industry's biggest challenges require? How do you build the kind of trust that makes people and organisations resilient rather than merely compliant? These are leadership questions as much as insurance questions, and they are where the industry's capacity to respond to everything else on this list ultimately lives or dies.

Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally, and leadership consultant trusted across Australia, the UK, USA, Singapore, Canada, and New Zealand, is the person organisations bring in when they are ready to act on what the thinkers on this list are saying. His work with leadership teams in financial services and professional services organisations focuses on the practical questions of team communication, difficult conversations, and aligned decision-making that determine whether strategy actually lands. To engage Jonno for a workshop, keynote, or leadership team offsite, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several genuinely significant figures were seriously considered for this list but were not included in the final 35. Tim Grafton led the Insurance Council of New Zealand for twelve years through some of the most challenging events in the country's insurance history, including the Canterbury earthquakes and Cyclone Gabrielle, and his contribution to the sector is irreplaceable. He stepped down as ICNZ CEO in April 2024 and is now an independent director and consultant, a transition that moved him slightly outside the frame of actively shaping the daily conversation this list prioritises.

Julie Mitchell at Allianz holds a significant commercial leadership role and her inclusion in the Outlook 2026 CEO panel reflects genuine market standing. Her focus has shifted more toward commercial leadership than public thought leadership in recent months. John Deex at Insurance News is one of the most respected editorial voices covering the sector, and his work as editor-in-chief of Australia's most widely read insurance trade publication means his influence is primarily expressed through the platform he curates rather than his own public commentary. Several rising-star voices from the NZ broking market, including representatives of Marsh New Zealand and Insurance Advisernet New Zealand, demonstrate the depth of talent in that market that did not have room to be profiled in a list of 35.

Common Mistakes When Engaging with Insurance Thought Leadership

The most expensive mistake in engaging with industry thought leadership is confusing positional authority with insight. Many of the most visibly credentialled people in insurance, those with the biggest titles at the largest organisations, are also the most constrained in what they can say publicly. The most interesting thinking in Australian and New Zealand insurance often comes from the peak body leaders, the insurtech founders, the specialist researchers, and the regulators who have both the freedom and the obligation to say things that executives at publicly listed companies cannot.

A related mistake is treating Australian and New Zealand insurance thought leadership as a single conversation. The two markets face overlapping but distinct challenges. New Zealand's exposure to seismic risk, its different regulatory framework, its smaller market scale, and its unique demographic and cultural context mean that the NZ conversation about insurance has its own texture and urgency. Australian readers who engage only with Australian voices miss the perspective that NZ thought leaders like Jimmy Higgins, Naomi Ballantyne, and Kris Faafoi bring, particularly on climate adaptation, natural disaster response, and the limits of the private insurance model.

A third mistake is treating the regulatory conversation as separate from the strategic conversation. The voices of Jane Magill at APRA, Kris Faafoi at ICNZ, and Andrew Hall at ICA are not merely background noise to the commercial decisions that insurers, brokers, and insurtechs are making. They are shaping the operating environment within which all commercial decisions must be made. Ignoring regulatory thought leadership is like building without reading the building code. The organisations that engage most productively with regulators tend to have fewer surprises and more strategic flexibility.

Finally, many organisations engage with thought leadership passively, reading articles, attending conferences, and consuming content without ever translating insights into organisational change. The value of following the people on this list comes not from knowing their views but from doing something different as a result of engaging with them. If your leadership team has been tracking the insurability and affordability conversation for three years without changing how you talk about risk to your clients, your board, or your regulators, the thought leadership has not landed.

Jonno White works with insurance and financial services leadership teams to turn the insights from industry conversations into the cultural and communication changes that actually shift how organisations operate. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Implementation Guide: How to Engage with Insurance Thought Leadership

Start by following the peak body voices first. Andrew Hall at ICA, Katrina Shanks at ANZIIF, and Richard Klipin at NIBA collectively cover the regulatory, professional development, and broking dimensions of the Australian market. Kris Faafoi at ICNZ covers the equivalent ground in New Zealand. Following these four will give you a reliable feed of what the sector's most pressing strategic and regulatory issues are at any given moment.

Then build out by sector. If your work focuses on technology and distribution, add Simone Dossetor at Insurtech Australia, Tetiana George at Curium, and Rob Ellis at Sentro to your reading list. If you work in commercial insurance, engage with the voices of Kathleen Warden, Kevan Johnston, and Sue Houghton. If life insurance is your domain, start with Fiona Macgregor and Damian Mu. For climate and catastrophe, Mark Leplastrier and Joanna Aldridge provide the deepest technical grounding.

Make a habit of reading ANZIIF Journal, Insurance Business Magazine, and Insurance News, which collectively provide the most consistent coverage of the voices on this list. The NIBA Convention, ANZIIF Australian Insurance Industry Awards, and ANZIIF New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards are the events where these conversations most productively occur in person. If you are in a position to attend them, the value is not the content on stage but the conversations in the corridors.

Finally, do not confuse following thought leaders with developing your own thinking. The most effective use of thought leadership is as provocation and evidence, not as a substitute for forming your own views. Building the kind of leadership culture where your own team can do the same requires investment in communication, trust, and the willingness to have difficult conversations.

Jonno White, host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast with 230 episodes across 150 countries and Founder of The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000 participating leaders, helps insurance leadership teams build those capabilities. International travel for workshops and offsites is consistently more affordable than clients expect. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss what is possible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most influential insurance thought leaders in Australia?

The most influential voices currently shaping Australian insurance include Andrew Hall at the Insurance Council of Australia, who leads the sector's public advocacy; Sue Houghton at QBE Australia Pacific and Nick Hawkins at IAG, who lead the two largest general insurers; Katrina Shanks at ANZIIF, who sets professional development standards for the entire sector; Simone Dossetor at Insurtech Australia, who connects the innovation ecosystem; and Richard Klipin at NIBA, who represents the broking profession. Beyond these five, the regulatory voices of Jane Magill at APRA and specialist thinkers on climate, technology, and life insurance each have significant influence in their domains.

Who are the leading insurance thought leaders in New Zealand?

New Zealand's insurance thought leadership is anchored by Jimmy Higgins at Suncorp New Zealand, whose advocacy on natural disaster resilience and affordability is well known in government circles; Blair Turnbull at Tower Insurance, who has led one of the country's most successful insurer turnarounds; Kris Faafoi at ICNZ, who brings a unique combination of political and media experience to the industry's peak advocacy role; and Naomi Ballantyne, whose 42-year career building New Zealand's life insurance market makes her one of the most consequential figures in the history of the sector.

What is the most important issue in Australian and New Zealand insurance right now?

Insurance affordability and accessibility in the face of climate risk is the defining challenge. Extreme weather events have cost Australian insurers more than $4.5 billion per year on average over the past five years, and that figure is projected to reach $35.2 billion per year by 2050. In New Zealand, successive flooding and cyclone events have triggered a fundamental rethink of how the country prices and manages natural disaster risk. The question of who gets left behind when premiums become unaffordable, and what role government should play in supporting communities that private insurance can no longer adequately protect, is the most urgent and consequential in the sector.

How was this list compiled?

This directory was compiled through research across the leading sources of Australian and New Zealand insurance thought leadership, including ANZIIF Journal, Insurance Business magazine, Insurance News, the ICA Annual Conference, NIBA Convention, InsurtechLIVE, and the ANZIIF New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards. Candidates were assessed on the originality and impact of their public contribution to the insurance conversation, disciplinary and geographic diversity, and their current relevance to the forces transforming the sector in 2026. The list spans general insurance, life insurance, health insurance, broking, insurtech, regulation, catastrophe research, and claims management, and includes significant New Zealand representation.

Can I hire someone to facilitate leadership development for my insurance team?

Yes. Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out with over 10,000 copies sold globally, delivers leadership workshops, Working Genius facilitation, team offsites, and keynote presentations for financial services and insurance leadership teams across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Singapore, the US, and beyond. His facilitation helps insurance leadership teams build the communication culture, decision-making frameworks, and difficult conversation capabilities that determine whether strategy actually translates into organisational change. International travel for workshops is often far more affordable than organisations expect.

Email jonno@consultclarity.orgjonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your team's needs.

What makes a genuine insurance thought leader as distinct from someone who merely holds a senior title?

A thought leader in insurance is someone who actively shapes how others in the sector think, not just someone who holds institutional authority. The markers include publishing original analysis or commentary, speaking at industry forums in ways that challenge rather than merely confirm existing views, engaging with the hardest questions about the industry's future rather than defending the status quo, and maintaining a visible presence in the professional community that extends beyond their own organisation's communications. Many of the most influential people on this list hold significant institutional positions, but they are represented here because of what they contribute beyond those positions, not simply because of the titles they hold.

Final Thoughts

Insurance is one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated sectors in the global economy. Its absence is felt acutely when things go wrong, but its presence is largely taken for granted. The thought leaders on this list have chosen to make insurance their life's work at a moment when the sector faces an unusual combination of existential pressure and genuine opportunity, to use technology to serve customers better, to advocate for the policy changes that would make insurance more accessible, to build the insurtechs that prove a different model is possible, and to lead organisations through complexity with integrity.

Following these 35 voices will not give you a simple picture. They do not all agree. Some are optimistic about where the sector is heading. Others are urgently worried about the affordability cliff that threatens to leave lower-income households uninsured. What they share is a willingness to engage seriously and publicly with the hardest questions in their industry, and that is what makes them worth your time.

If you lead an insurance or financial services organisation and you want to build a leadership team capable of navigating the kind of complexity that these thought leaders are describing, Jonno White works with executive teams across Australia, New Zealand, and beyond to build the culture and capabilities that make the difference. His bestselling book Step Up or Step Out is available at:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Step-Up-Out-Difficult-Conflict/dp/B097X7B5LD

To discuss how Jonno can work with your team, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits across the UK, India, Australia, Canada, Mongolia, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, USA, Finland, Namibia, and more. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Next Read: 35 Best Thought Leaders in Banking in Australia and New Zealand (2026)

Finding the thought leaders who are genuinely shaping banking in Australia and New Zealand is one of the most consequential research tasks facing anyone working in financial services in 2026. Whether you are organising a banking conference, recruiting a board advisor, curating a leadership development programme, or simply trying to understand who is driving the conversation, you need a guide that separates the true industry shapers from people who merely hold impressive titles. The Australian banking sector remains one of the most concentrated in the developed world, with the Big Four banks holding approximately 75 percent of total banking assets.

Keep reading: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/thought-leaders-banking-australia-nz