Arch Insurance Australia has promoted a former Chubb casualty leader with broking experience to run its retail casualty book, Acenda Life has moved its people chief into the chief commercial officer role as its integration enters a new phase, and PPS Mutual has hired an adviser-facing business development manager for New South Wales.
Arch Insurance Australia has promoted Andrew Whitlock (pictured, left) to head of casualty, effective immediately, nine months after he joined as northern region casualty underwriting manager from Chubb. The insurer announced the move on October 6.
Whitlock is responsible for the casualty team, underwriting strategy and growth of Arch’s retail casualty portfolio across Australia. The portfolio spans primary and excess liability placements across a broad risk appetite, with a core focus on products-led risks including manufacturing, wholesale, retail, importing and exporting. Based in Sydney, he reports to managing director Dominic Brannigan and works closely with James Mecham, deputy chief underwriting officer for long tail lines and head of general casualty at Arch Insurance International.
His appointment brings a broking background to the job. In the northern region, Whitlock ran underwriting and broker relationships across New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland, Insurance Business reported when he joined. Before Arch he was a casualty segment leader in Chubb’s major accounts division in Australia, and he previously held broking roles at Brown & Brown in London.
Brannigan said Whitlock’s contribution to the northern region’s growth had been significant, and that the business expects him to strengthen its casualty offering across Australia while continuing to deliver strong support to brokers. Mecham said the appointment strengthens alignment between Arch’s Australian retail operations and its wholesale team in the London Market, and described casualty as a core line of business for the group.
Acenda Life has appointed Ross Miller (pictured, centre) as chief commercial officer, responsible for its Australian commercial teams across insurance, wealth and retirement solutions. Sean McCormack is stepping down from the role. The announcement came on October 12.
Miller joined Acenda in February as group chief people and culture officer after more than 25 years at Westpac Group. His roles there included chief customer and engagement officer for consumer and business banking, general manager of St. George Bank, and group general manager of human resources for Westpac’s Australian financial services businesses. In the customer and engagement role he led channel and distribution delivery across branch, virtual, home lending, Indigenous banking, and small business and SME operations serving more than 10 million customers.
Lisa Green succeeds him as group chief people and culture officer, effective immediately. She has more than 30 years of human resources experience across Australia and the United States, including senior roles at Citigroup and J.P. Morgan in Sydney and New York, group executive of human resources at ASX Limited and, most recently, chief people and culture officer at oOh!media.
McCormack originally joined MLC Life Insurance in 2009 and rejoined Acenda Life in 2025 to lead the commercial division through the early stages of the integration of Acenda Life and Resolution Life Australasia. Group chief executive Chris de Bruin said McCormack had led the team to important market wins, supported the integration of its people and helped establish the cultural foundations of the Melbourne office.
The Acenda Group was formed in October 2025 after Nippon Life’s global acquisition of Resolution Life Group. It brings together Acenda Life, Resolution Life Australasia and Asteron Life New Zealand and supports more than two million customers across Australia and New Zealand.
De Bruin said the group is “making strong progress towards a simpler, digitally enabled operating model” almost a year into its Australian integration, and that the appointments bring together the commercial, customer and people capabilities for its next phase while keeping disciplined execution for customers, advisers and partners. He pointed to Miller’s understanding of customer and distribution operations as important as the group sharpens its commercial strategy. The release gives no detail on any changes to adviser-facing teams or products.
PPS Mutual has appointed Maria Repac (pictured, right) as business development manager for New South Wales, reporting to Sabrina Sequeira-Walmsley, state manager for New South Wales and the ACT. The insurer announced the hire on October 7. Repac will help expand its accredited adviser network across the state by deepening existing partnerships and building relationships with new advisers.
Sequeira-Walmsley said the appointment reflects growing adviser demand in the state, with advisers seeing more complex needs from professional clients and wanting a partner who understands that market. She said Repac’s experience across underwriting, claims and operations gives her a practical understanding of how to support advisers.
Repac has more than two decades of experience across life insurance and financial services. She joins from MetLife Australia, where she began in the underwriting team before moving into business development in 2022 as a business development consultant, working with advisers to grow their risk businesses and reconnect with advisers who had previously engaged. Before MetLife she was operations manager at claims management software business ANCIS and an HR adviser at Munich Re. She also spent almost 14 years at Commonwealth Bank and CommInsure, including as a specialist claims support analyst on complex and long-term claims, and holds a Diploma of Financial Planning.
Insurance Business reported in May that PPS Mutual appointed Hasib Qayumi as its New South Wales business development manager from May 4. The release does not say whether Repac’s role is additional to that post or replaces it.
PPS Mutual’s life insurance products are sold exclusively through accredited independent financial advisers and designed for professional clients such as doctors, lawyers and accountants. The insurer said its annual lapse rate of 6.4% compares with an industry average of 14.3%, a comparison it sources to the NMG Retail Advice Channel Risk Distribution Monitor as of June 30, 2026, and that Adviser Ratings has named it Best Retail Life Insurer for three consecutive years. Insurance Business reported separately that its profit-share pool reached $19.6 million at the end of 2025-26.
