Plenary Program

Plenary program and speakers

Explore the tools required to enable leaders to respond to complex challenges in health and general insurance. The sustainability challenge is no longer just financial — it is structural, behavioural and cultural. 

Suhit Anantula (AI Strategy and Human-Centred Innovation expert), Jacki Johnson (Non-Executive Director, Community First Bank), and Karen Mundine (CEO, Reconciliation Australia) explore how leaders can shift between planning, experimentation and sensing to build more resilient, inclusive, and customer-aligned insurance models. Suhit and Jacki bring experience in Health and General insurance.  Karen brings a powerful lens on inclusion and cultural awareness, using lived experience with First Nations communities that result in us not focussing on deficits but strengths and contributions. 

Multi-Rhythm Leadership is the capability to move deliberately between structured planning, iterative learning and real-time sensing. 

Leave with practical tools to lead with confidence amid rising costs, natural disasters, climate volatility and rapidly evolving customer expectations. 

Risk is evolving at an extraordinary pace, well beyond what traditional frameworks can capture. Geopolitical instability, climate volatility, technology and cyber risks and emerging health challenges are redefining what customers need protection against, and what insurers can sustainably cover. Through four focused lightning talks, hear from Alix Pearce, Insurance Council of Australia, and Rade Musulin, Finity Consulting who are at the forefront of these emerging risk areas. This session will examine the changing nature of insurable risks and what adjustments are needed across products, pricing and risk management. Walk away with concrete strategies for adapting your actuarial practice to meet emerging risk challenges. 

Gain insights from speaker Karan Anand, Chief Strategy Officer and Managing Director Australia at Hnry. Rapidly changing consumer expectations and economic transformation demand actuarial insight that anticipates and then moves ahead of the speed of change — designing solutions rapidly, testing ideas fearlessly and communicating impact clearly to executive teams. How do we bring startup agility into actuarial practice while maintaining rigour? Karan shares frameworks from building and scaling innovative businesses. Through real examples of commercial innovation, you'll learn how to run lean experiments, focus resources on what's material and build business cases that resonate with leadership. 

Hear from Danielle Wood, Chair of the Productivity Commission on Australia's opportunity to reshape its economic trajectory through strategic reform. With productivity growth remaining stubbornly low and impacting living standards, the Government is increasingly turning to its key independent research and advisory body to propose solutions. Danielle will present key findings from the Commission's recent inquiries and outline how their recommendations can drive impactful reform. From workforce participation to regulatory efficiency, technology adoption and service delivery, you'll gain insight into the evidence-based strategies needed to lift Australia's productivity and secure our economic future as multiple sectors go through critical transitions. Discover how actuaries can contribute to this reform agenda — whether through better data utilisation, improved risk management or more effective policy design. Leave with a comprehensive understanding of the productivity challenges ahead and the practical pathways for addressing them. 

Disruption demands the ability to rethink, reset and act. Hear from accomplished actuaries, Adam Driussi, CEO of Quantium,  Nicolette Rubinsztein AM, and Brett Clark CEO and Managing Director, Daiichi Life who have all have faced defining moments, tough calls, unexpected failures and breakthroughs that reshaped their thinking. They will share the lessons, mindset shifts and practical actions that turned setbacks into stepping stones for their careers. You will leave with stories that can be translated into lessons for today and ways to build resilience and reframe setbacks, to turn challenges into growth. 

 
Building true financial wellbeing requires more than strong investment returns. It demands a deeper understanding of human behaviour, mental health and the cognitive factors that influence financial decision-making and retirement confidence. 

In this insightful plenary, Dr Fiona Kerr, The NeuroTech Institute,  Alison Bodinnar, Acenda, and Lara Elgey, Head of Performance & Growth, Member Growth, Aware Super, bring together neuroscience, insurance insights and financial capability frameworks to explore how funds can better support Australians’ financial resilience.  The session will highlight evidence-based methods for communicating complex information, improving member confidence and enabling clearer decisions across life stages — ultimately strengthening long-term retirement outcomes.