More than 350 of the insurance sector’s leaders packed into the New Zealand room of the SkyCity Convention Centre on Thursday to celebrate the industry’s annual awards, hosted by
ANZIIF.
The event was presented by TVNZ heavyweight journalist Mike McRoberts who told the crowd he was heading back to Syria to report on the conflict zone after the event. He mentioned that getting insurance for such a trip had not been easy, and he had eventually used a broker in London (although he didn’t say who).
Guests were encouraged to take selfies at their tables and load the photos up to Instagram and Facebook with the official event hashtags; two bottles of unidentified “bubbles” were up for grabs, so the exercise proved popular. While guests dined on tuna, and beef carpaccio, beef rib and salmon, the awards were announced.
Rothbury Insurance Brokers had a good night, taking home three awards. The company was named large broking company of the year for the fourth year running. It was also awarded the learning programme of the year, and the broking professional of the year award went to Hawke’s Bay branch leader Kim Matthews.
Rothbury managing director
Roger Abel said winning three awards was “very humbling.”
“I’m very proud of the team and what we’ve achieved,” he said. “Providing a consistently high level of service to our clients is the driving force behind everything we do at Rothbury and we’re delighted to have industry recognition for the work we’re doing.”
Fidelity Life was named life insurer of the year; chief executive Nadine Tereora said the award was fantastic recognition for the hard work of Fidelity’s staff, advisers and partners. Criteria for the award included customer satisfaction, innovation, and staff development, contribution to the insurance industry, as well as the wider community – and an overview of how the company intends to address changes to the market over the next five years.
Tereora presented the women employer of the year award that went to ANZ (OnePath). The judges praised ANZ, including ANZ’s insurance company OnePath Life, for demonstrating exemplary commitment to supporting women in both policy and practice.
“The judges were impressed by the number of women we have in our insurance business, our commitment to equal pay and ANZ’s range of policies to support women’s development,” said ANZ managing director of wealth Craig Mulholland.
Mulholland added that, as a business, ANZ had put in a tremendous effort to build an environment where every employee is given every opportunity to learn or progress, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, profession, or other differences.
IAG NZ also scooped three awards, including one of the lifetime achievement awards for
Karl Armstrong.
NZI won the innovation award and also the intermediated insurance company of the year.
“It’s a fantastic effort for NZI to win in the intermediated insurance company of the year award, as well as the innovation of the year category for the Seeing Machines Guardian System,” said IAG chief executive Craig Olsen. “The system, part of the NZI Fleet Fit Programme, detects driver fatigue and distraction in real time to help drivers prevent accidents, save lives and get home safely.”
Delta Insurance, meanwhile, won the underwriting agency of the year award.
Delta managing director
Ian Pollard said: “we’re here to stay and our ambition is to make New Zealand proud and out the New Zealand insurance industry on the global stage.”
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Sixth NZ insurance industry awards winners announced
ANZIIF named Educational Service Provider of the Year
