Brian Siemsen
CEO, Claim Central
As an Ernst & Young 2011 Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Brian Siemsen has built a company that has seen Claim Central evolve into Australia’s leading property claims specialist supported by its internationally recognized claim management platform – ClaimLogik. Falling into insurance, as most do, Brian quickly understood the claim process and its key drivers – Customer, Communication, Cost, Quality and Lifecycle, and then set about building a business, enabled by technology, to deliver what the industry wants. Married with three young children, Brian divides his time between his growing family and growing business, with a passion to continually improve the claims management process.
Chris Bennett
Branch Manager, Crawford & Company
Chris has had dual, parallel careers for the past 25 years in both Loss Adjusting and Emergency Medical Services. His extensive loss adjusting experience throughout the United States and Australia as both a Catastrophe and staff adjuster has lead him to his current position as Branch Manager for Crawford & Company in Darwin. Chris’s experience as a Paramedic includes being a Chief Flight Paramedic (Helicopter), Critical Care Paramedic, Training Officer, a published author in Cardiology and Respiratory assessment, and having presented numerous lectures to national and international audiences.
David Hosking
Chief General Manager, Broker & Agency - Allianz
David Hosking is the Chief General Manager of the Broker and Agency division of Allianz. He is responsible for the management of profitability of this $1.8Bn business, which also includes Hunter Premium Funding, and Allianz’s operations in New Zealand. David manages a team of 400 people who are focused on building long term profitable partnerships with domestic and international brokers who distribute Allianz’s personal and business insurance products across Australia and New Zealand. He joined Allianz in May 2008 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in July 2009, moving into his current position in August 2014.
David has over twenty years’ experience in the insurance industry holding a number of senior roles both domestically and in the UK and Asia. He is a Chartered Accountant and has an MBA from Sydney University. David is also a Director of a number of subsidiaries within the Allianz Australia Group including: Primacy, Global Transport, Allianz New Zealand and Euler Hermes; and Chairman of Allianz Marine & Transit Underwriting Agency. Prior to joining Allianz, David spent nine years at IAG in a variety of positions including CFO Asia, Head of Australia Financial Services, and Group Management Accountant. Prior to this, he worked for FAI.
Dr Allan Manning
Managing Director, LMI Group
For over 40 years, Prof Allan Manning has managed large and complex losses involving major and complex claims all around the world. Using his experience he now acts as a client advocate on claims, acts as an expert witness, and conducts policy reviews and drafts insurance wordings. He has developed knowledge based services such as PolicyComparison.com, BIcalculator.com, RiskCoach and the business continuity management system, ContinuityCoach.com now used across the globe.
Allan is one of Australia’s most academically qualified insurance professionals having lectured at RMIT, Melbourne, and Victoria Universities and has delivered over 1,200 papers on insurance and risk management topics. He holds the post of Adjunct Professor with Victoria University in the Faculty of Law and Justice, and is the author of 13 books on insurance, including Business Interruption Insurance & Claims; Mannings Six Principles of General Insurance; Understanding the ISR Policy and It May Happen to Me! The Essential Guide to General Insurance. He is currently international president of the International Institute of Claims Preparers and was recently rated in the top 20 most influential people in insurance for the 5th year running. He was awarded the Life Time Achievement Award at the 2012 Insurance Industry Awards and is an Honorary Life Member of The Institute.
Greg Pynt
Honourary Life Member, AILA
Greg graduated from the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Laws in 1977 and moved to London in 1981 where he worked for Willis Faber & Dumas, Insurance Brokers. Between 1981 and 1983, Greg worked in the Litigation Department of Clifford-Turner (now known as Clifford Chance) in London. He then returned to Perth and in 1987 became a partner in Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons). Greg left Mallesons Stephen Jaques in April 1996 to set up Pynt + Partners. He left Pynt + Partners in October 2012. Greg was a Senior Claims Solicitor at Law Mutual (WA) between December 2012 and May 2013 and joined Francis Burt Chambers as a barrister in July 2013.
Greg won the Australian Insurance Law Association Insurance Prize in 2000 and is an AILA Honorary Life Member. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Western Australia where he has co-ordinated and lectured in insurance law in the Faculty of Law at undergraduate and postgraduate level since 1991. The 3rd edition of his book ‘Australian Insurance Law: A First Reference’ was published in November 2014. Greg is also the General Editor of the Insurance Law Journal, published by LexisNexis. When he is at home, Greg is a supporter of the (not so) Mighty Blues.
Jim Filer
Senior Risk Engineer, CGU Insurance
Jim has over 10 years prior risk engineering experience involving roles at CGU, Marsh and Vero Global and Risk Managed managing risk engineering programs for large institutional clients as well as global clients in the process, transport, manufacturing and mining industries including Xstrata, Arrium, Downer EDI and other heavy industry.
Mark Thompson
Head of Major and Complex Loss, Cunningham Lindsey
Mark is responsible for developing and implementing Cunningham Lindsey’s Major and Complex Loss claims strategy in Asia Pacific, as well as CL’s Forensic Accounting Practice, FAS Global. Prior to moving to Cunningham Lindsey, Mark gained significant experience in building and managing forensic accounting practices as a partner at PwC and RGL Forensics in Australia. Mark worked in London for 3 years managing Xchanging Claims Services. He led the team which was responsible for building claims capability and the transformation of the Lloyd’s market claims agreement process from 2006 to 2009. Mark has managed reputable loss adjusting and claims management companies in Australia as the Managing Director of Crawford, Australia and the CEO of Xchanging, Australia. Mark commenced his loss adjusting career with Thomas Howell in Johannesburg South Africa after qualifying as a chartered accountant and has since managed significant losses on behalf of insurers and policy holders in the USA, UK, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Ralph Bonig
Special Counsel, Finlaysons
Ralph has an extensive background in the provision of advice and advocacy in a range of insurance related areas. His client base is diverse and in addition to insurance its include large corporations, professionals and government instrumentalities. Ralph has acted in complex multi-party professional indemnity claims as well as public liability and catastrophic personal injury claims. He is a past President of the Law Society of South Australia as well as a former director of the Law Council of Australia. In both those capacities he has sat and continues to sit on a number of committees dealing with national issues, including professional indemnity, proportionate liability and the NDIS.
Steven Manning
Director, LMI Group
Steven commenced his insurance career in 2002 as a claims preparer specialising in material damage claims. Since then he has been involved in all manner of property claims and major catastrophe responses including the Victorian Bush Fires in 2009 and the Melbourne Hail Storms heading up LMI Group’s initial response team. Steve has concentrated largely on business interruption insurance since commencing his career. He is now the product manager of LMI BI Calculator, which provides knowledge on this vital cover together with an online sum insured calculator for a wide range of business interruption policies, available in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe. Steve’s business interruption expertise, along with his passion for film production, makes for a unique contribution to LMI Group’s innovative product range. On the 1st of July, Steven became a Director of the company, and then following this in August 2016, Steven was named in Insurance Business Magazine’s Top 50 Young Guns in Insurance due to his ongoing contribution to the industry including management of the LMI eServices and broker training sessions he holds regularly.