Dear Member,

In this edition of CEO Connect, I provide a view on the global insurance market, update you on our Annual Report, and share my insights from our recent Annual Conference.

Last week, Tobias Pfau, Unimutual’s Underwriting and Reinsurance Manager, and myself had the opportunity to meet with our reinsurers in the London Market. It is always very rewarding meeting our reinsurance partners in person. Throughout the week, we focused on the current market conditions and any possible impacts they could have on Unimutual.

While it is too soon to be talking about this year’s renewal pricing, it is never too soon to share the story of our Mutual, our vision for the future and why we are different. It is clear from these conversations that the global insurance market is still managing the challenges of 2022 – mainly rising inflation and supply chain shortages. However, on the positive side, competition still exists for valued accounts like the Unimutual portfolio.

Tobias and I also met with UM Association Limited (UMAL), the mutual fund serving the higher education sector in the United Kingdom. It was a great conversation and an opportunity to understand the things we both have in common. More importantly, we covered what we can learn from each other, for the benefit of our Members. The insights gained from UMAL are being considered as part of our five-year strategic plan.

On the topic of our strategic plan, the Unimutual team and our Board have been looking at our strategy, shifting our gaze from a twelve-month plan to a five-year plan. The 100-plus attendees at our Unimutual Annual Conference recently had an opportunity to provide some feedback on the draft strategy, particularly the six strategic pillars we are considering. I look forward to the opportunity to share our Vision 2028 strategy with our Members in the coming months, when our five-year plan is finalised.

As well as the draft strategy, attendees at our Annual Conference heard from fascinating speakers covering topics ranging from disaster insurance and data breach to cultural burning and mental health. It was a wonderful three days on the Gold Coast. A big thank you to everyone who attended, from across 50 organisations. It was a pleasure to meet many of you in person and to hear your thoughts on the future of your Mutual.

Initial feedback from the Post-Conference Survey has been extremely positive, and we will be taking this feedback onboard to further improve our future conferences. For those Members who were unable to attend the conference, recordings of the addresses and accompanying presentations can be found here. I also encourage you all to follow us on LinkedIn, where you can see our regular updates and photos from the conference.

Thank you also to those who could make our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday 29 March 2023. We shared details of our performance in our 2022 Annual Report, which is now available to read here. We also re-elected two Member Directors to the Board – Mr Andrew Flannery (University of Queensland) and Mr Darren Greentree (Western Sydney University). Thank you to both Andrew and Darren for their continued support. For those who could not attend, the recording of the AGM is available for Members in the Members Only section of the Unimutual website here.

Recent discussions with reinsurers and hearing from our speakers at our Annual Conference has reiterated that we all have a role to play in getting the best deal from our reinsurance protection this year. Data accuracy, completion of risk recommendations, current insurance valuations, and timely submission of data will give your team the best opportunity to create competition in the market for the Unimutual account. If there is anything the team can do to support you with any of the above, please do not hesitate to let us know via email at service@unimutual.com.au.

Yours sincerely,

Geoff Henderson

Chief Executive Officer

e: geoff.henderson@unimutual.com.au

p:  +61 2 9169 6604  m: +61 (0) 417 887 513

Read previous CEO Connect newsletters here.

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