Claims Innovation

Louise Portelli

CEO & Founder
Melita Consulting

Louise Portelli is an experienced Chief Customer Officer and ‘big 4’ Partner specialising in customer experience in Financial Services. Louise was formerly the Chief Customer Officer for MLC Life Insurance and Resimac Group in Australia as well as Lead Partner of the Customer Transformation practice at KPMG UK. She has led a wide range of large scale customer and digital experience transformations for global Insurers aimed at accelerating growth through human centred journey design, digitisation, automation, product innovation and culture change. Louise is passionate about using customer insights to drive innovation and experience improvement in Insurance.

Louise is an experienced Board Director in the not for profit sector. She holds an MBA and lectures at Sydney University in Change & Transformation, Leadership and Corporate Strategy

Benjamin Lynch

Claims Manager, ANZ
iptiQ by Swiss Re

Benjamin is the Claims Manager at Swiss re in the iptiQ division. Benjamin’s experience includes 20 years in life claims across third party administration, direct life insurers, and reinsurers with claims experience in direct, advised, and group. Benjamin has a particular passion for systems and process improvement and building high performance teams resilient to change.

Nick Herford

Managing Director
Hello Claims

Nick started his career as a panel beater and has worked extensively on light and heavy motor. After managing many assessing & claims teams for large insurance companies (including complex claims over $10m) and working on major CAT events across the globe, Nick co-founded Hello Claims in 2014. Nick is a Senior Associate of ANZIIF, a Fellow of AICLA, a member of the Institute of Automotive Mechanical Engineers and holds numerous business qualifications. 

Nigel Hawtin

General Manager, Claims Transformation
QBE

Nigel has worked in Financial Services and Financial Services Consulting for 20 years, with the last 7 years at QBE in the AUSPAC Claims function. He is currently the GM Claims Transformation, setting the claims modernisation agenda across Short Tail, People Risk and Casualty classes. He also leads the Claims ‘Value Stream’ in its Agile delivery of Digital, Data, Automation and Supply Chain initiatives. 

Louise Portelli

CEO & Founder
Melita Consulting

Louise Portelli is an experienced Chief Customer Officer and ‘big 4’ Partner specialising in customer experience in Financial Services. Louise was formerly the Chief Customer Officer for MLC Life Insurance and Resimac Group in Australia as well as Lead Partner of the Customer Transformation practice at KPMG UK. She has led a wide range of large scale customer and digital experience transformations for global Insurers aimed at accelerating growth through human centred journey design, digitisation, automation, product innovation and culture change. Louise is passionate about using customer insights to drive innovation and experience improvement in Insurance.

Louise is an experienced Board Director in the not for profit sector. She holds an MBA and lectures at Sydney University in Change & Transformation, Leadership and Corporate Strategy

Angat Sandhu

Partner
McKinsey & Company

Angat is a Partner with the McKinsey Insurance Practice in Sydney and has been advising insurers in Australia and Asia for 16+ years. His focus areas include driving sustainable value creation for his clients through performance transformation using data analytics, digital and operating model shifts. He is passionate about the important role the insurance sector plays in customers’ lives and motivated to work with insurers and distribution partners to improve customer outcomes. 

Prior to joining McKinsey, Angat led the Asia Pacific Insurance and Wealth practice of another consulting firm. 

Angat holds a Bachelor of Commerce with double majors in Actuarial studies and Finance from the University of New South Wales. He is an Actuary, recently developed and lectured a course on InsurTech for the University of New South Wales and regularly publishes on insurance topics in industry journals. 

Angus Cruickshank

Head of Supplier Partnerships and Performance
Hollard Insurance

Angus is Head of Supplier Partnerships and Performance at Hollard. He has held senior roles across several organisations, with a focus on claims, assessing, and the supply chain. He is known for his commercial acumen and pragmatic approach to improving the customer experience.

Jonathan Pack

Head of Claims
Blue Zebra Insurance

Jonathan has held various roles throughout his career, that has allowed him to appreciate the challenges the market faces on all levels, be that: customer, broker, service provider and insurer. Having worked at an international insurer for a significant period, Jonathan recently moved across to Blue Zebra Insurance, where he now holds the position of, Head of Claims. Since coming onboard at Blue Zebra, Jonathan’s focus on getting the key components to claims’ handling right, has seen a significant uplift in Blue Zebra’s claims service offering overall and one that provides great opportunity as we move into 2023. Jonathan has a continued focus on strategic initiatives that will optimise the customer experience, but also supports the internal capabilities of handling claims in today’s environment. Jonathan has also had various involvement in industry working groups, both in Catastrophe Management and Young Insurance Professional Mentorship Programmes. Jonathan is passionate on planning for the future of the industry and continually focuses on opportunities for leaders throughout the insurance industry to come together and identify opportunities for the overall market, to allow for continued success and stability into the future. 

Kara McInnes

National Claims Service Manager
CHU Underwriting Agencies

Kara is the National Claims Service Manager at CHU Underwriting Agencies. In her 12 years as an insurance professional, Kara has managed numerous Catastrophe responses such as the Townsville Floods, Cyclone Debbie and more recently the devastating floods in Northern NSW and South East Qld.

Her passion for her role in the claims sector saw her named as a Young Gun by Insurance Business Australia in 2020. She has served on the ANZIIF GI Breakfast and Rising stars committees, participated as a mentor in the 2022 NIBA mentoring program and was recently appointed to the ANZIIF GI Faculty Advisory Board in 2023.

Louise Portelli

CEO & Founder
Melita Consulting

Louise Portelli is an experienced Chief Customer Officer and ‘big 4’ Partner specialising in customer experience in Financial Services. Louise was formerly the Chief Customer Officer for MLC Life Insurance and Resimac Group in Australia as well as Lead Partner of the Customer Transformation practice at KPMG UK. She has led a wide range of large scale customer and digital experience transformations for global Insurers aimed at accelerating growth through human centred journey design, digitisation, automation, product innovation and culture change. Louise is passionate about using customer insights to drive innovation and experience improvement in Insurance.

Louise is an experienced Board Director in the not for profit sector. She holds an MBA and lectures at Sydney University in Change & Transformation, Leadership and Corporate Strategy

Carola Moore

Head of Group Claims
AIA

Carola is currently the Head of Group Claims at AIA Australia.  She forged her career over 20 years in leadership, consulting, capability building, business development, project and operational roles, in small and large organisations. This has been realised in life insurance, professional services, education, mining and manufacturing across South Africa, Canada and Australia.

Carola has developed a track record of human-centered transformation.  Her core belief is that highly engaged and empowered people create exceptional experiences for customers; and that highly satisfied customers form strong bonds with organizations that truly care for them.

Carola is an active participant in industry bodies and advocate for change.  She is currently an ALUCA Board Director and Education Committee Working Group member, and she was previously an ANZIIF Professional Standards Working group member. She has written and spoken publicly on matters pertaining to the future of claims and claims professionals.

She holds post-graduate degrees in psychology and leadership, as well as diplomas in Behavioural Economics and Agile.

Outside of work, Carola is the proud mother to a 20-year old daughter and a 9-year old Groodle named Tessie.

Danielle Whitelock

General Manager – Claims
Achmea

Danielle Whitelock is an experienced General Manager, more recently joining Achmea Australia in 2021 where she is responsible for the leadership and delivery of claims and client services.

Danielle has over 20 years’ insurance experience with specific claims experience across multiple product lines.

During this time she had been responsible for operational management and performance across the insurance value chain including stakeholder and partnership management, underwriting and claims.

Danielle has a proven track record of driving highly engaged teams to achieve their objectives across multiple distributions channels and environments, believing that building employee capability, a culture of team work are inextricably linked to the customer experience and performance.

Danielle had delivered Innovative strategies across multiple distribution channels with a focus improving delivering increased business performance, employee engagement and client satisfaction.

Ella Clarke

Director of Insurance (ANZ)
Cover Genius

Ella Clarke is the Director of Insurance (ANZ) of Cover Genius, the insurtech for embedded protection. Together, Cover Genius and its partners protect the global customers of the world’s largest digital companies including Booking Holdings and Intuit. XCover is also available at Amazon, eBay, and Shopee. In her role, Ella is responsible for insurance products and partnerships for the ANZ region. Prior to Cover Genius, Ella worked at Bupa in a variety of product management and business development roles. 

Ella has a Law degree from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne and dedicates time to ‘CG Gives’, Cover Genius’s charitable arm that supports a variety of global and regional causes.