The Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC) has confirmed four part-time acting appointments to its board, following an April 17 announcement by Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino that Evelyn Horton, Eilis Hurley, Fran Raymond, and Kent Griffin will serve from April 23, 2026, through July 6, 2026.
The acting appointments extend the terms of existing ARPC board members Horton, Hurley, and Raymond for the specified period and add Griffin as a new acting member. ARPC has set the temporary arrangements to maintain the board’s capacity to make decisions during the acting period. Griffin joins the board with experience in insurance, banking, and risk management. He is currently managing director and chief executive officer of Hume Bank and has previously served as a non‑executive director of the bank and chair of its risk committee. Earlier roles include managing director and CEO of Acenda, chief financial officer at TAL Australia, and partner at EY.
The acting appointments follow the scheduled end of the term of board member Oscar Shub on April 22, 2026. Shub was appointed as a part‑time member for a three‑year term beginning April 23, 2023. He is a part‑time consultant with Clyde & Co and founded the firm’s Australian legal practice as a partner. ARPC chair Julie-Anne Schafer acknowledged Shub’s work with the corporation and his broader industry role. “On behalf of the board, I wish to thank Oscar for his dedicated service and significant contribution to the organisation, particularly his expertise in insurance and reinsurance legal and contractual environments, and his deep knowledge of the insurance sector,” Schafer said.
The changes at board level follow ARPC’s earlier notice that chief underwriting officer Michael (Mike) Pennell PSM plans to retire later in 2026, after more than two decades with the corporation and a long career in reinsurance. Pennell has worked with ARPC since its early years and has had ongoing responsibility for the design, administration, and operation of the Terrorism Reinsurance Pool. In more recent years, he has overseen technical and underwriting work for the establishment and implementation of the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool, which provides government‑backed reinsurance for cyclone‑exposed portfolios, particularly in northern Australia.
Pennell’s responsibilities have included treaty and program design, underwriting oversight, and engagement with domestic and international reinsurers, together with input into catastrophe modelling and pricing approaches as terrorism risk and reinsurance market conditions have changed. ARPC has also noted his involvement in the initial transition of insurer portfolios into the cyclone pool. In the 2017 Australia Day Honours List, Pennell received the Public Service Medal for “outstanding public service in the development of the terrorism insurance scheme.” ARPC has indicated it will formally mark his service closer to his departure date.
To manage the transition, ARPC has begun recruitment for a new chief underwriting officer. The role will continue to oversee underwriting and treaty administration for the terrorism and cyclone reinsurance pools established under the Terrorism and Cyclone Insurance Act 2003. The position carries responsibility for leading ARPC’s underwriting function, coordinating treaty arrangements with participating insurers, and contributing to catastrophe modelling and pricing analysis that informs national resilience and insurance affordability policy settings. According to ARPC, the recruitment process is designed to support an orderly handover and maintain confidence among insurers, reinsurers, government partners, and other stakeholders in the technical leadership of the schemes. The role is currently advertised, with further details available on ARPC’s careers page.
These governance and executive developments come as ARPC reports that total claim payments from the cyclone reinsurance pool have exceeded $1 billion since the scheme began operating. ARPC said payments so far relate to 20 declared cyclones and have gone to residential, small and medium enterprise, and strata policyholders in northern Australia. A large portion of the total is associated with Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which resulted in substantial insured losses.
ARPC CEO Dr Christopher Wallace said the claims figure is connected to the pool’s role in supplying government‑backed reinsurance capacity to insurers with cyclone‑exposed portfolios. “Passing $1 billion in claim payments is a significant achievement for the scheme, and more importantly, for the communities it was designed to support. The cyclone pool was established to lower insurance premiums for households, small businesses, and strata properties in medium‑to‑high cyclone risk areas by providing insurers with affordable, government‑backed reinsurance. This milestone demonstrates that the pool is working as intended – delivering timely, reliable support following severe cyclone events,” Wallace said.
