Judges

Rosemary serves as the Senior Warden (key officer) and Court Assistant on the governing body of the Worshipful Company of Insurers. She is a non-executive director and former Head of International Regulatory Affairs for Lloyd's of London. She is a member of the Actuarial Council at the Financial Reporting Council, a member of Lloyd's Enforcement Tribunal Panel, a former member of the Board and Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute, a Vice President and former Council member of the Insurance Institute of London and an Associate of the Girls' Day School Trust.

Rosemary has a Master's degree in Classics from Cambridge University and is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute. She is married and lives in London with her husband and two daughters. Her main interests are scuba diving in British waters, open water swimming and visiting Italy.

I am currently the Chief Executive Officer of Premium Finance. This position reflects a 19 year journey across a variety of businesses and roles within the Close Brothers Group - the latter 6 years as a member of the Banking Division Board as Bank Chief Operating Officer and most recently CEO of the fastest growing business in the Group. Over this period I have repeatedly demonstrated my ability to build, lead and motivate exceptional teams, combining clarity of strategic direction and unparalleled intensity of execution.

Hobbies / Interests:
Equestrianism: having established a horse breeding business from my farm in Wiltshire, I am proud to have achieved unexpected but exciting results and now have the ambition to breed an Olympic Three Day event horse to represent Great Britain.

Skills and experience
Amanda Blanc has nearly 30 years of experience in various insurance markets and has held several senior executive roles across the industry as a qualified chartered insurer. Ms. Blanc joined Zurich as Chief Executive Officer for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) with additional responsibility for Global Banking Partnerships in October 2018, when she also became a member of the Executive Committee. Before she joined Zurich, Ms. Blanc served as Group CEO of AXA UK, PPP & Ireland from 2016 until 2018, having previously joined the board of AXA UK in 2011 as CEO of AXA Insurance, Commercial Lines. Prior to that, she held executive leadership positions at the UK-based insurance broker Towergate Partnership Ltd from 2006 until 2010, served on the executive committee at Groupama Insurance Co Ltd from 2003 until 2006 and was appointed as regional director for her first term at AXA Insurance UK from 1999 until 2003. Ms. Blanc became a management consultant at Ernst & Young in 1998 working on transformational assignments, having started her career as a graduate trainee at Commercial Union Assurance Company Ltd (now Aviva plc) in 1989. Ms. Blanc was the president of the Chartered Insurance Institute in 2013 and was also a previous chair of the UK Insurance Fraud Bureau.

External appointments
Ms. Blanc is chair of the board of the Association of British Insurers.

Educational background
Ms. Blanc graduated with a bachelor's degree in history, with honors, from the University of Liverpool in 1989, and qualified as an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII) in 1992. She received an MBA from Leeds University Business School in 1999.

"Josh has been at Lloyd's for five years where he currently leads the business oversight relationship between Lloyd's and ten companies operating in the Lloyd's market. Previously, Josh worked as a development manager where he leveraged Lloyd's insight to partner managing agents with business growth opportunities in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Josh began his career in the U.S. Senate as the personal assistant to Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Later, Josh served as the Deputy Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Rules Committee under Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).

Josh is admitted to the New York State Bar, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers (WCI), and holds a certification from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). Josh is the chair of the iENGAGE group at WCI, founding member and former Chair of the [email protected]'s resource group as well as a founding member of the LGBT resource group for U.S. Senate employees. In 2018 Josh was named as a leading Role Model in the Insurance Industry and one of the Top 50 LGBT Future Leaders by the Financial Times. In 2019 Josh became a Board Member and Trustee at The Insurance Charities."

Has more than 30 years' experience in the insurance industry and has operated at main board director level for insurers, brokers and an MGA; giving her a broad market knowledge.

Cathie is currently a Director at Braes Consulting Ltd, providing interim and consultancy services to the insurance industry and is a Non-Executive Director at Daimler Insurance Services UK Ltd.

Cathie is currently engaged on a transformation project for a niche insurer, covering all aspects of their route to market, with emphasis on strategic planning, trading system selection, business development, distribution, channel management, customer proposition and product development

Simone is passionate about diversity, and over the past two years she has created a series of ‘Women In' awards and conferences to celebrate and recognise the achievements of women in areas where they have traditionally been massively under-represented. She truly believes putting women on the map through events like these has the power to help bring about cultural change and tackle the gender imbalance.

Julie Chalmers is Senior Vice President, Claims Director, Europe, Eurasia & Africa for Chubb. In this regional executive role she has overall responsibility for the strategy and delivery of Chubb's claims services, leading our claims teams across these regions.

Having joined Chubb over 14 years ago, Julie has held a number of claims roles of increasing seniority, across both operational and technical roles, in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Most recently she served as SVP Claims, Financial Lines and Personal Risk Services, Chubb Overseas General - the company's international general insurance operation outside North America - before assuming her current role in January 2019.

Julie has been a qualified lawyer since 1992, and has been admitted to practice as a Solicitor in Australia and also the UK. Prior to her move to insurance, she was a partner at a law firm in Australia.

During her time at Chubb Julie has been involved in many diversity projects and committees, including the International Advisory Group, Women's Development Council, Claims Diversity Council and many mentoring programmes. She is currently Executive Sponsor of our Gender Equality Network, which provides opportunities for networking, education and development of business capabilities for all employees, with the aim of driving positive change towards the goal of gender equality within Chubb and the wider insurance industry.

Cherry is the Head of General Insurance at Barnett Waddingham LLP. She joined Barnett Waddingham in 2009 and was made a partner at Barnett Waddingham in 2013.

Cherry has experience in advising a range of general (re)insurance companies on actuarial issues including statutory reserve reviews, pricing and Solvency II implementations. She is also working with technology providers and Insurtech firms to help insurers find ways to improve innovations, reduce operating expenses and efficiently implement IFRS17 standards.

Cherry is a Fellow and Faculty Institute of Actuaries and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries (WCA).

My career started with a UK water company and rapidly expanded into construction and international infrastructure projects giving me my first experience of global insurance. Over the past twenty years I have also worked for a major international life insurance and fund management company and a leading global retailer. I have continued professional development throughout my career achieving the Advanced Diploma from the Chartered Insurance Institute, the International Risk Management Diploma from the Institute of Risk Management, a Master's degree in Insurance and Risk Management.

I was one of the founder members of the working team dedicated to addressing the needs of risk managers when placing international insurance, this culminated in the creation of the compliance tool Insight Risk Manager.

I was elected Chairman of Airmic in 2014/15 and in my year as chair, I focused on partnership, diversity and youth. I challenged the industry and my own colleagues to create true partnership and to foster openness, trust and transparency between insured and insurers. I am passionate about the future of our profession and challenged Airmic to consider and overcome the barriers that exist which restrict members from a fuller participation. I have also been a Board member of FERMA, the European risk management association.

In my personal life, I hold the position of lead volunteer within one of the regions of Girlguiding UK. In this role I chair the Executive Committee (all volunteers) to fulfil the aims and objectives of providing girls and young women with opportunities for discovery, leadership skills and to support their local community whilst adhering to all the governance regulations of a registered charity.

Lynn Cufley is Marketing & Communications Director, International at Crawford & Company®. Passionate about communication as a means to inspire and inform, she has excelled at positioning Crawford as the leading loss adjusting and claims management company across EMEA/AP, elevating its status as a thought leader and expert communicator.

In her eight years at Crawford, Lynn has successfully reengineered the company's communication strategy. Spearheading the ‘Engage through Education' project, she has brought Crawford's expansive expertise to the communication fore, creating engaging, ‘on-the-pulse' commentary across all channels. These include Crawford's market publication ‘On the FrontLine' blog, helping customers and partners successfully navigate the claims arena.

Lynn has also exploited her communications skills to promote greater diversity within Crawford and on the industry stage. A prominent member of the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters' Women in CILA group, she has championed award-winning initiatives that support female progression in the sector.

Helen is the Head of the Insurance practice at DAC Beachcroft LLP in the UK and internationally. In 2015, she was appointed to lead the Insurance practice across all lines of Insurance from motor, casualty , professional & financial lines to international claims. This involves operational responsibility leading DAC Beachcroft's Professional & Financial lines and commercial litigation practise and Specialist insurance claims in London ( covering marine, international casualty, product liability, energy and Property). Helen sits on the Firm's Executive reporting into the Managing partner as the Sector lead for Insurance and is responsible for all Insurance clients across the Insurance practice within the UK and internationally.

Helen also maintains and develops significant insurance client relationships and has considerable experience in defending a wide variety of professionals and advising on coverage issues.

Helen qualified in 1992 and joined DAC Beachcroft in 1997.

Sian Fisher became CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute in February 2016, following a distinguished career in the Insurance sector.

A graduate of Oxford University with an Exec MBA from Harvard, Sian is a strong advocate for equality. Sian is a founding member and Executive Chair of the Insuring Women's Futures initiative, a Committee Member of the Insurance Supper Club and Board Member of Insurance United Against Dementia (IUAD).

Ms. Fisher is also a Non-Executive Director at Asta Underwriting Management and a Vice President of the Insurance Institute of London.

Martin began his career in insurance in 2006 as a reporter at Insurance Age before ultimately taking on responsibility of editing the magazine after which he moved into communications with AXA in 2012. Here he was initially responsible for the external communications for AXA Commercial Lines and Personal Intermediary and eventually assumed responsibility for all internal and external communications and public affairs for AXA UK. In 2018, he left AXA to return to journalism where he now operates as a freelancer.

Rachel Gordon is a freelance journalist and copywriter. She is a former editor of Insurance Age, which focuses on the UK broker market and she was also the launch editor of Health Insurance, which specialises in protection and healthcare. She has since written extensively on business and financial services topics and a current role, in a different sphere, is for a range of horticulture titles. Other ongoing work includes technology and risk management copywriting projects and she also produces weekly blogs and bespoke corporate writing for a range of companies including insurers. Rachel is a former winner of BIBA and ABI awards for journalism. Outside of work, she is a parent of two older adopted children who are at secondary school and she is involved with animal charities including fund-raising for the RSPCA and carrying out home suitability checks for a small German Shepherd charity.

Julia is the Deputy CEO and Technical Director of Airmic where she heads the Airmic thought leadership and education agendas. Julia has been a risk management professional for over 25 years, as Director of risk management and insurance for global law firm DLA Piper and prior to that as Head of strategic risk, insurance and compliance for insurance company RSA.

Julia worked in various roles at RSA, including Business Manager Scotland, Regional Operations Manager for the North West of England, Broker Marketing Manager for the UK and as an underwriter in the City of London.
Julia is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute. A past President of FERMA, the Federation of European Risk Management Associations, she is currently a board member of IFRIMA the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations. Julia is a past Chair of Airmic, a past member of the national Council of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a past Chair of the Manchester and Sussex Insurance Institutes.

Julia is a published author in Business Continuity Management.
She is currently a Non-Executive Director of four captive insurance companies all domiciled in Guernsey.

Philip Grant has enjoyed a career of nearly forty years in the London Insurance Market, holding senior roles in reinsurance and specialty insurance risk carriers. He is an independent non-executive director and chair of the Audit Committee for Argo Global. Since retiring from full-time employment, Philip has focused on his commitment to diversity and inclusion in the financial and professional services workplace. He is Chair of The Brokerage, the City-based social mobility charity connecting young Londoners and employers. He is also a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers and a trustee of its charitable trusts.

Karen has been working in the Lloyd's and London market for over 25 years, starting her career in the compliance arena, moving on to a COO and then a CEO role within the Lloyd's market for an established Lloyd's Managing Agency. She is also the Senior Independent Director for the USAA Limited and a Director of a Multi-Academy Trust, along with being a founding member and Chair of Green Kite Associates.

SCOR SE was her first Global Reinsurance role and within scope fall operational matters, oversight and coordination of EMEA satellite offices (Madrid, Milan, Stockholm, Dublin, Moscow, Amsterdam, South Africa and Brussels), Internal Controls, Operational Risk Management, Regulatory Relationships, Property Affairs, Hub Compliance and working with the business divisions on new projects from a strategic perspective.

Karen is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers and Chair of the Independent Women in Insurance Committee (iWIN). A Founder Member of European Council for the Advancement of Women in Leadership and addition to this a supporter of the Lloyd's Military Network for senior officers leaving the Armed Forces. As a supporter of educational diversity Karen is a Director of the Burnt Mill Academy Trust, and as a keen painter a member of Lloyd's Art Group. Age and educational diversity are of particular interest and she often takes part in presentations and conferences on these topics, along with being an Ally to LGBTQ colleagues.

Heeral Gudka is the founder of Convergent Consulting, she is an Inclusion & Diversity Consultant as well as Leadership Coach. For the last 5 years she has been working with organisations within the insurance sector in London and Bermuda, and also companies in a variety of other sectors and professions. The philosophy behind her work is this - for people to truly thrive at work they need effective leaders who listen, who create inclusive work-spaces and pay attention to their wellbeing.

Prior to starting her business Heeral worked in the City as an actuary for 15 years with PwC, Hiscox and QBE and Enstar in Bermuda.

When she isn't working you'll find her out on long walks or perhaps having a martini at Dukes in St James'.

Paula Jarzabkowski is a Professor of Strategic Management at Cass Business School, City, University of London and at University of Queensland Business School. Professor Jarzabkowski is an expert in insurance and reinsurance markets, having lead international teams in studying different aspects of the global industry for many years. Her research has been funded by the UK and European research councils, insurance industry consortia, and the Bank of England. She has released a range of industry reports, Masterclasses, academic papers, and a widely acclaimed book on "Making a Market for Acts of God" with Oxford University Press in 2015. Her current study examines how Governments and Markets around the world can better work together to address the growing threat of natural and manmade disaster, which is the subject of her latest industry report: Between State and Market: Protection Gap Entities and Catastrophic Risk. She is Co-Chair of the Expert Advisory Group for the UK government DFID Centre for Global Disaster Protection, and on the OECD High-Level Advisory Board for the Financial Management of Catastrophic Risks. Professor Jarzabkowski is a sought after speaker at industry conferences and workshops, and her research frequently features in industry and business media, and is used to inform policy.

I started my career after university in Sydney, first as a marketing assistant for an insurance company and then as a US Treaty Underwriting assistant working for ReAC, (it was sold to me as a business analyst position!) and moved to New York after the Australian reinsurance market dissolved in late 1990's. I then worked for KPMG as a senior consultant in their insurance practice for a couple of years, before returning to the industry, joining Guy Carpenter's International division in New York - working in retro and reinsurance predominantly for Bermuda, London and European based clients. After a secondment to London in 2004, I moved to London with Guy Carpenter in 2005 into the EMEA practice. I worked for GC in London for 13 years, covering global clients, then moving to client management for the Nordic Practice. I also built the offering for our Terror Practice in London achieving the #1 position for Terror Pool Market. I have also always held internal roles, EMEA lead and then lead for International on Property specialty practice where I was involved in many internal and external projects. In 2017 I left GC to join Aon moving out of client management directly and into new roles for both myself and Aon, leading the Public Private Entity Specialty looking at closing the protection gap, and also Reinsurer Management Strategy for Aon UK.

Ajay Mistry ACMA currently works as the Partnerships Director at Brokerbility (an exclusive network of circa 25 regional Independent Insurance Brokers) and his role has been to grow and develop a new sales & marketing division focusing on new ways to sell insurance to different SME groups.

He has previously worked at both Aviva and Aon and further to this, Ajay co-founded and is Co-Chair of iCAN (the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network) which is the first network to represent BAME and International colleagues in the insurance industry. iCAN is 2 years old and currently has 700 members. Ajay was also voted as a Top 50 EMpower Ethnic Minority Future Leader in the 2019 List presented by Yahoo Finance and named in the Insurance Young Guns list 2018 by Insurance Business Mag.

Rosa is Head of Partnerships and Income Generation at The Brokerage, an award-winning social mobility charity based in the City of London. Rosa works closely with companies to help build their HR and CSR programmes so they can better attract and support young people from non-advantaged backgrounds into their careers. Specialising in financial and professional services, Rosa has worked with top corporates across the capital, advising on their diversity initiatives.

Prior to joining The Brokerage in 2012, Rosa was an Assistant Director for Explore Learning education centres, working with children to develop their maths and English and has also worked with language schools creating extracurricular activities for secondary school students to help them engage with the world of work.

"Andrew is a member of the Hiscox Global Claims Leadership Team and has in excess of two decades experience with Hiscox working across London Markets; Continental Europe and the UK. As Group Head of Claims Supplier Management his team is transforming the way Hiscox claims engage with third party suppliers working on claims around the world and is focusing with them on diversity and inclusion initiatives as well as collaborating on improving the service they deliver to policyholders. He is the co-exec sponsor of the LGBT+ Transatlantic-Employee Network and is a Hiscox Partner".

Kalpana is a non-Executive Director at Asta Managing Agency, RiverStone Insurance UK (a Fairfax Company) and RiverStone Managing Agency where she is also Chairman. She is a Trustee of Unitas (a Barnet Youth Zone). She was Group Chief Actuary and Partner at Hiscox, where she worked for 19 years until 2016. Before Hiscox, Kalpana held positions in various companies including the London Commodity Exchange, Groupama Gan and Disney. She has Chaired and contributed to working parties for the Bank of England, Lloyd's of London and the Bermuda Monetary Authority. Kalpana is a Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Insurers, she is currently a member of iNED committees for both these organisations. She is also a member of the 30% club.

Kalpana regularly speaks to executive groups and student groups, sharing her perspective on issues that help support the principles of D&I. She actively mentors a number of diverse individuals within insurance and through cross-company mentoring schemes. Her support for diversity has been recognised by inclusion in the Financial Times Top 100 ethnic minority leaders list. Also, she was recently in Green Parks Top 100 BAME leaders in business list and a finalist in the regional Director of the Year awards held by the Institute of Directors.

Winner of the Northern Power House Outstanding Entrepreneur 2018, Sam is a true business initiator having set up her first company at 24. Motivated by a desire to change the insurance industry for the better and level the playing field, Sam has become known for her promotion of women and diversity in the financial services sector.

Founder and CEO of insurance services provider, Action 365, insurance provider, Pukka Insure and the newly launched brokerage, Freedom Brokers, Sam prides herself on operating a true meritocracy. With a collective turnover in excess of £15 million, Sam employs over 240 people in the UK, Gibraltar and Australia. A vocal supporter of equal rights in the workplace, 67% of Sam's directors are women.

As a mother of two, philanthropy is important to Sam, she has established a foundation with the goal of supporting some of the most worthy humanitarian causes locally, nationally and internationally.

David Worsfold is best known for his work as an award-winning financial journalist, in particular as a writer on the insurance industry and financial services which he has covered for over 35 years.

As well as editing a range of leading insurance titles, including Post and Insurance Age, David wrote for The Guardian for several years and has contributed to most major national newspapers. He has appeared on TV around the world commenting on news stories affecting the insurance and financial services sectors.

Among his many achievements, David launched the British Insurance Awards - now in its 25th year as the most successful B2B awards scheme in the UK - the Rehabilitation First Awards and the Cover Magazine Protection Awards. In 1991 he established the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services which has played an influential role in improving communication between the insurance and retail financial services sectors and Parliament.

He devised the highly-praised graduate-entry Editorial Training Programme at Incisive Media and delivers editorial, writing, communications and media skills training for a range of publishers and financial services firms.

His latest book, From Behind the Desk to The Front of the Stage, was published in December 2018 by Business Expert Press. This is based on David's range of innovative training courses and coaching modules for people who need to be confident and skilled presenters as part of their job. Twitter for Financial Services was published by Business Expert Press in December 2017 and explains how regulated firms can be successful in the world of social media.

He has also written a military biography, Fighting for the Empire, which was published by Sabrestorm in September 2016.