Susie joined the board as chair in 2020. A lawyer with wide knowledge of property, commercial, trust and estate law, she is also an experienced company director who brings understanding of governance and the difficulties faced by organisations. In 2014, Susie was made a member of New Zealand Order of Merit for services to governance and business.

Chris is a detective inspector, seconded full time to the association’s national office. He was first elected for a three-year-term at the 2016 annual conference and re-elected in 2019 for a second term until 2022.

Chris has held a range of positions with the association since 1994, including committee member, chairman, pay adviser, region director and vice-president.

Ralph Stewart has been a board director since 2014 and was chair until 2020. He was CEO of AXA Insurance New Zealand for nine years and, more recently, CEO of ACC. He has 30 years’ experience in New Zealand’s financial services sector, including eight as general manager of marketing and strategy at Tower Insurance.

Nathan Thomas joined the board in 2021. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the insurance market and was recently appointed as the chief actuary for Cigna New Zealand. He is head of the data science team with Montoux, working on applying artificial intelligence to decision making within the insurance industry.

Rob, a chartered accountant, joined the board in 2021 and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee. He was group managing director at Tower Insurance for seven years till 2013 and managing director of Guardian Trust from 1995 until 2000, as well as serving as director of group initiatives for Royal & Sun Alliance. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and serves as a Justice of the Peace.

Paul is a Sergeant, working in road policing in the Hawkes Bay region. He is currently a Vice-President of the New Zealand Police Association and has was first elected as a regional Director in 2016. Paul is passionate about his role and representing the voice of our membership.