Plenary Program and Speakers

About Naomi

Naomi currently sits on the boards of TAL (Australia’s largest life insurer), Propel Funeral Partners and Yarra Funds Management Ltd.

An actuary by training, with an executive background in the financial services industry, Naomi has an Australia wide reputation in the financial services industry, having advised on many major life insurance and funds management acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand. She is a former partner of Deloitte, where she ran the Australian financial services Industry Group.  

About Suzanne

Suzanne Smith was appointed Executive Board Member of APRA on 31 October 2022, responsible for the general insurance, life insurance and private health insurance sectors. 

She joined APRA in March 2019 initially as General Manager for Superannuation and then Executive General Manager for the Specialised Institutions Division. In December of that year, she was promoted into the Executive Director role with responsibility for the prudential supervision of superannuation funds licensed under the Superannuation Industry (Superannuation) Act 1993. 

Prior to joining APRA, Suzanne’s career included senior roles across the superannuation and financial services industry in areas including life insurance, funds management, asset servicing, alternative investments, wholesale banking and property.  

Immediately prior to joining APRA, Suzanne held the role of Chief Customer Officer Group Insurance at MLC Life Insurance. She has also held several senior roles within NAB, including acting as a director and Chairman of a NAB Subsidiary Board from 2011 to 2015. 

Suzanne holds a Bachelor of Business with distinction (Property), a Masters of Applied Finance, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  

About Brett

Brett Clark was appointed TAL Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in April 2015.

Brett has over 25 years global financial services experience holding a range of senior roles across including Strategy, Finance, Sales, Product and Marketing and Operations in both the Australian and international insurance markets. 

A qualified actuary, he holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Melbourne and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD.

Brett is passionate about enhancing educational and career opportunities in rural and regional communities, and broader gender diversity through his roles as a Non-Executive Director of the Australian Business and Community Network and as a member of the Champions of Change Coalition.  In addition, Brett is Co-Chair and a Non-Executive Director of The Council of Australian Life Insurers and holds a range of roles across the global Dai-ichi Life Group.  

About Phil

Phil joined in 2018 and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of QInsure, Australia’s first life insurance company owned by a profitformembers superannuation fund. Phil is responsible for leading the strategic and operational direction of QInsure, with decisions regarding member experience, commercial growth, governance and individual claim matters made with members’ interests at heart.  

With more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry, starting his career as a chartered accountant, he has led finance, insurance, technology and operations teams. Phil has held executive roles in the United Kingdom and Australia. His passion is the creation and delivery of exceptional customer experience, led by a positive culture.  

Phil has led two, multi-year strategic review and transformation programs to establish and build the unique experience within Australian superannuation that is QInsure.  

About Krystal

A true purpose-driven entrepreneur, Krystal is fearless when it comes to driving transformational change in the healthcare landscape. It’s safe to say, Krystal isn’t afraid of a challenge.   

Strategic and solutions based, Krystal has never been one to take a traditional approach to problems. Through her agency Humanise Health, she is now revolutionising the healthcare industry, alongside businesses and organisations, by creating humanised and innovative patient-led strategies, initiatives and projects to ensure optimal outcomes for everyone. 

Everything Krystal stands for, comes from a place of personal experience and a vision for a world where access, equity and patient-led decision making is second nature for all stakeholders. As she knows the value of healthcare, science and access first hand.   

Her story and purpose was born out of the sheer determination to break the cycle of cancer that has plagued her family for generations (mother diagnosed at 36, Nan 44 and Great-grandmother 68). Armed with knowledge that she was in fact a carrier of a cancer-causing genetic mutation, BRCA1, thank you to what was considered a revolutionary genomic test 18 years ago, she decided to change her future and take control of her health. Undertaking a preventative mastectomy at 25 and ovarian preventative surgery at 33.   

Krystal has spent the better part of 20 years alongside her family advocating for genomic healthcare and ensuring other families like hers had the answers, knowledge and options to determine and mitigate their own cancer risk. 

About Jess

Jess is an experienced actuary with significant industry presence and a keen interest in influencing public policy. She is passionate about understanding the advancements in genetics research on society and has been influencing genetics public policy through volunteering efforts including research, publication, media and public speaking. Her professional work experience consists of traditional actuarial functions, as well as strategic and finance roles in both Insurance and Banking.

About David

Prof David Thomas is the inaugural Director of the Centre for Molecular Oncology at the University of New South Wales, and Head of the Genomic Cancer Medicine Laboratory at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. He is also CEO of Omico, a not-for-profit company he established to lead a national precision medicine program for patients with rare and early onset cancers.  

As a clinician-scientist, his focus is on the application of genomic technologies to the understanding and management of cancer, particularly sarcoma. Prof Thomas founded the Australasian Sarcoma Study Group, a national research organisation, and established Australia’s leading adolescent and young adult cancer unit at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.  Prof Thomas founded and leads the International Sarcoma Kindred Study, the largest ever conducted study of genetic factors in sarcoma, now recruiting from 23 centres in the US, UK, France, India, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia. He led the first international study of denosumab in Giant Cell Tumor of bone, leading to FDA and TGA approval. He also co-led a meta-analysis of whole body MRI screening for patients with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, changing clinical practice guidelines from the NCCN, AACR and EviQ in Australia.

He has over 200 research publications, including lead or senior author papers in Science, Cancer Cell, Molecular Cell, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. In 2018, he was President of the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, the peak international body in his field.

About Douglas

Douglas initially joined Platinum in May 2003 as an investment analyst covering industrials and as primary communicator for advisor presentations. He previously worked for CBA as a product actuary and prior to this as an investment manager for Aegon Asset Management in the UK. Douglas left Platinum in October 2008 to work in Singapore where he helped develop Standard Chartered Bank’s equities broking business. 

Douglas rejoined Platinum in February 2013, as Investment Specialist, acting as an intermediary between the investment team and Australia/NZ based advisers. Over time he built a team to support this effort, and since 2017 he has, in addition, been introducing Platinum to US-based investors. Douglas was appointed as Head of Investment in March 2022 and is responsible for the investment team’s process and people. He has been a member of the firm’s Management Committee since 2013.  

About Sam

Sam Killmier is the Head of Dynamic Asset Allocation at Future Fund.  He leads a team of strategists that recommend the broad market (‘beta’) exposures for the Agency’s various risk-taking portfolios over both long-term and medium-term horizons.  Sam’s team is also responsible for capital market assumptions and total portfolio risk and scenario modelling, as well as frameworks for aggregating factor exposures and managing liquidity and flexibility risk.

Sam joined the Future Fund from Towers Watson Australia, where he started his career as an actuary and then moved into investment consulting and strategy.  Sam holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.

About Suzie

Suzie Riddell is Chief Executive Officer at SVA. She previously held the role of Chief Strategy Officer, leading the Strategy & Advocacy team. She draws on her extensive experience in the social purpose and commercial sectors to lead SVA’s systems change agenda. Suzie has led the development of innovative education and employment ventures, securing philanthropic seed capital and demonstrating impact to win scale funding from government. She has built SVA’s Practice Area and Policy & Advocacy capabilities.

Prior to joining SVA, Suzie was a consultant at Bain & Company. Suzie holds a Bachelor of Accounting (University Medal, First Class Honours) from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Master of Philosophy (International Relations) from the University of Cambridge. She is a Director of Community Council for Australia, a Non-Executive Director of The Observership Program, and formerly of YWCA NSW and Holdsworth Community Centre and Services. She was a winner of AFR BOSS Magazine’s Young Executive of the Year 2017.

About Elayne

Elayne Grace, CEO of the Actuaries Institute, leads the actuarial professional body known for its education program, professional standards and contribution to public policy thought leadership. 

With 25 years of international experience spanning consulting firms and insurance companies, she provided strategic, economic and financial advice. Elayne played a pivotal role in nurturing early collaborations between businesses, scientists, and NGOs to address climate change and risk. She is a frequent presenter at conferences and has contributed to various thought leadership papers ranging from climate change to Big Data. Elayne's advisory roles have included serving on Commonwealth Treasury expert panel and advising the Indigenous Land Corporation Board on long-term investment sustainability.

In 2019, Elayne was recognised in The Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence awards. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

About Iwan

Iwan is the Regional Head of Insurance for Grab Financial Group, a unit of Grab, South-East Asia’s leading superapp. Iwan oversees Grab’s insurance distribution business, corporate insurance management, and captive insurer. 

An Australian qualified actuary, Iwan has worked in Australia, UK, and South-East Asia for companies such as Mercer, KPMG, Milliman, Allianz and SCOR before joining Grab in 2020.  His expertise lies primarily in insurance business management, M&A, market entry, strategy, and actuarial management. 

His primary areas of interest are micro-insurance for the underserved and lower-income segments, and retirement income solutions. 

About Frankie

Frankie is the Head of Programme Value Optimisation, Air & Insurance, Cathay Pacific Airways, having joined the airline group since 2017. In this unique & diverse role he drives the development of Asia Miles in becoming the most desirable mileage currency of the Cathay Membership Programme, manages the programme’s flight accrual & redemption propositions, as well as leading the Insurance business for Cathay.

Over the past two decades, Frankie have undertaken consulting and corporate roles covering Australian and Asian markets across General Insurance, Retail Banking and Customer Loyalty. As an actuary he has a passion in solving business problems using data, with a sharp focus on value creation & customer centricity.

About Lisa

Lisa is a visionary leader who believes in the power of data and AI to transform businesses and society. With extensive experience delivering digital solutions for the telecommunications and finance sectors, Lisa is passionate about using AI and advanced analytics to enhance customer experiences, optimise operations, and deliver high-quality products to customers. 

As the Data and AI Solutions Executive at Telstra, Australia’s leading telecommunications and technology company, Lisa is accountable for driving the scaled adoption of AI across the company. In her role, Lisa plays a critical role in realising Telstra’s digital leadership ambitions by embedding AI into all critical processes and delivering capability that enables the swift adoption of emerging technology. 

Lisa is this years inaugural recipient of the Chief Executive Women and Actuaries Institute Harvard Business School Scholarship in recognition of her personal success, and how she is inspiring the next generation of women data scientists to pursue their dreams and take their place as leaders in this dynamic industry.

About Vanessa

Vanessa is Executive General Manager, Public Policy & Professionalism at the Actuaries Institute. In this role she leads the Institute’s thought leadership program, working closely with actuaries across a range of industries to deliver insights across key societal issues. She is also responsible for delivery of Institute support to its Practice Committees, of technical and professional support to its members thereby ensuring high-quality professional standards, and the Institute’s year-round events program.  

Before joining the Institute, Vanessa worked across government, financial services and education in both public and private sectors. This included in the Commonwealth Department of Treasury, the Federal Treasurer's office, Commonwealth Bank of Australia Group and NSW Department of Education.

About John

John Green is a leading company director, best-selling author and publisher. He is a non-executive director of Challenger, chair of Challenger Bank, chair of UOW Global Enterprises (University of Wollongong’s international operations), and a non-executive director of the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre. He is chair and co-founder of Pantera Press, one of Australia’s fastest growing independent book publishers. Previously, John was an investment banker at Macquarie and, earlier, a lawyer. He was also Deputy Chair of QBE insurance Group, and a director of Worley, a global engineering services group. 

About Estelle

Estelle is an actuary and a Director at Finity Consulting. She has worked in the general insurance industry for more than 30 years across both personal and commercial classes of business. She has worked with insurers and Governments on a range of issues including a number of insurance crises and affordability/availability problems for customers. She has seen a number of new risks emerge - asbestos, environmental damage, terrorism, pandemics, cyber, climate - and how these have and are impacting the insurance market and the need for actuaries to think creatively about risk.

About Alan

Swinburne astronomer Professor Alan Duffy works on dark matter, space science, and muon technologies. He is the Pro Vice Chancellor of Flagship Initiatives working across the latest technologies including space, establishing Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne as the inaugural Director 2021-2023. He is an experienced public speaker and science communicator on TV / radio and print.

About Sharanjit

Sharanjit is an Actuary with 30 years’ experience in actuarial consulting in the UK and Australia. He is a leading expert on climate change, and awarded Insurance Leader of the Year 2022 by ANZIIF for his work on championing action on climate change, Actuary of the Year 2023 by the Actuaries Institute, and Risk Manager of the Year by the Climate Alliance in 2020. 

He co-leads Finity’s perils & climate practice and advises insurers, banks, investors and governments on perils and climate risk assessment, management, strategy and reporting.  

In 2023 he authored a research report for the Actuaries Institute on Home Insurance Affordability, and in 2022 he gave a TEDxSydney talk on climate change and banks and insurers. 

Prior to working at Finity he was Group Head of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk at QBE Insurance Group, where he developed QBE’s global ESG policies, risk management framework, and reporting on climate change. 

About Jake

As Chief Executive Officer since March 2023, Major General Jake Ellwood (Rtd) is responsible for ensuring the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) delivers as lead state agency for disaster recovery and resilience. QRA has helped impacted communities recover from more than 100 disaster events since its establishment in 2011. 

Major General Jake Ellwood’s distinguished Australian Defence Force (ADF) career included serving as: State Recovery Coordinator, 2021-22 Southern Queensland Floods; Commander of 1st Division (Brisbane); Deputy Chief of Army; and ADF National Coordinator Black Summer Bushfires 2019-20. He has served in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and East Timor. 

About Jane

Jane Kern is Head of Impact Management at Bank Australia. Jane is responsible for managing and measuring Bank Australia’s impacts for people and the planet. This involves leading the bank’s climate action strategy, including the target of reaching net zero in its operations and portfolio by 2035, as well as its strategies on nature and biodiversity, reconciliation, and affordable and accessible housing.

Prior to joining Bank Australia, Jane worked with BASE, a Swiss foundation focused on driving investment in sustainable energy, and Australian Red Cross. Jane holds a Master of Sustainable Development from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and Bachelors of Business and Communications from Monash University.

About Andrew

Andrew joined the Insurance Council of Australia in September 2020 from the Commonwealth Bank, where he served as Executive General Manager, Corporate Affairs, for seven years. At CBA he was responsible for the management of CBA’s corporate reputation, public affairs and sustainability. 

He was previously Director of Corporate and Public Affairs for Woolworths Limited for six years, overseeing a similar portfolio and participating as a member of the Management Board. 

Andrew’s professional career started as a journalist in regional New South Wales in 1994, before moving to Canberra in 1996 where he worked in federal politics for 10 years as a ministerial media advisor. From 2001 to 2007 he was the Federal Director of the Nationals, leading the party as campaign director for federal elections. 

His expertise in the corporate affairs profession has been recognised with admission to the Arthur W. Page Society, recognition in the International Top 50 Corporate Affairs Professionals (Salt & Shein 2014) and in the inaugural award of Top 50 Outstanding LGBTI Leaders in Australia (Deloitte 2016) for his work in leadership roles, diversity and on the Board of Equality Australia for the marriage equality campaign. 

He has extensive experience in governance, both in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors. He serves on the boards of Rural Aid.

About Matt

Matt Collins MPIA is the Chief Executive Officer of the Planning Institute of Australia, a role he has held since April 2023.  

Matt is a qualified planner with significant experience in leadership, policy and advocacy. Prior to becoming CEO, Matt was the State Manager for PIA’s Queensland and Northern Territory Divisions from 2020 – 2023. Has was also the General Manager of the Queensland Government’s Cities Transformation Taskforce, where he played a central role in negotiating the $1.8 billion SEQ City Deal.  

With a wealth of experience in planning and infrastructure, Matt has also served as a Chief of Staff and senior advisor to several senior Ministers. He has worked as a planner for Urbis and LandPartners in Queensland. He holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, as well as a degree in journalism and public policy.  

About David

David was the Chief Risk Officer – Advice and Insurance for CBA until September 2023.  He has had 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry spanning general and life insurance, multinational insurers and consulting firms plus roles in reserving, pricing, underwriting and general management and risk management.  From 2013 to 2018 David was Chief Reserving Actuary for Zurich’s Asia-Pacific general insurance business across nine countries and prior to that he was a KPMG Partner and held senior roles at Allianz Australia.

About Shez

Shez commenced her role as Chief General Manager, Consumer in August 2023. 

Shez joined Allianz Australia from The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), where she was most recently Executive General Manager, Wealth and Private, and Executive General Manager, Advice, and Insurance. Prior to CBA, she spent several years at ANZ Wealth, including a period as Head of Insurance Operations and at ING Australia in various leadership positions.

Shez’s 30 years of leadership experience within the insurance industry and financial services positions us well to ensure exceptional customer experiences across distribution channels and the Customer Experience Centre.  

About Helen

Helen Rowell is a non-executive director and was recently appointed as Chair of the independent panel undertaking a review of the General Insurance Code of Practice. Helen was the Deputy Chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) until 30 June 2023, having spent the prior 21 years lifting standards of practice and leading major reforms across the superannuation and insurance industries. She has represented APRA on the International Association of Insurance Supervisors Executive Committee, as President of the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors, on the Financial Security Board’s Supervisory Intensity and Effectiveness Group and as co-Chair of the Joint Forum Financial Conglomerates Committee. Prior to joining APRA in 2002, Helen was a partner at the international consulting firm Towers Perrin and President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.