Chief General Manager Corporate Affairs & Governance
Allianz
About Libby Davidson
Libby joined Allianz in 2024 and holds the role of Chief General Manager, Corporate Affairs and Governance. Libby has extensiveexperience in senior leadership positions across legal, sustainability, government, industry relations and communications, with a focus on building corporate reputation and strong governance in highly regulated industries. Libby was most recently Group General Counsel, Head of Sustainability and External Relations Director at Lion, the international beverage company. Libby holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Sydney and is passionate about the role of Corporate Affairs and Governance in helping companies achieve their goals in the right way, by keeping pace with evolving community expectations, building trust and maintaining social licence.
Jessie Khan is Executive Manager, Underwriting (Terrorism) at the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation (ARPC), bringing more than a decade of experience across underwriting, claims, audit, and government-led initiatives. She leads ARPC’s terrorism reinsurance portfolio, working closely with domestic and international insurers including the Lloyd’s market, as well as government and industry stakeholders.
Jessie has also worked with the Commonwealth Treasury on the development and implementation of the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool and has contributed to broader cross-government efforts focused on insurance affordability and natural hazard risk.
She is particularly interested in how better use of data and insights can help identify where gaps exist in practice and help move from intent to measurable outcomes.
In 2024, Jessie was recognised as a Rising Star by Insurance Business America’s Reinsurance Business awards.
Tracy is a highly commercial executive human resources professional with expansive experience working within leading transformational commercial entities in Australia and overseas. Experienced with partnering CEO, Board and Executives Tracy is passionate about delivering a ‘best practice’ employee experience to benefit our teams and our clients. Tracy's experience in delivering effective change management programs to businesses ensures our effective transition from visionary goals to tangible results, whilst empowering and inspiring teams to deliver through periods of business change.
Taryn Brumfitt is an award-winning filmmaker, bestselling author and internationally sought-after keynote speaker. She is the co-Executive Director of The Embrace Collective; founder of the Body Image Movement and director of the inspiring documentaries EMBRACE and EMBRACE KIDS.
Named Australian of the Year in 2023 and awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Flinders University in 2024, she is a fiercely passionate advocate for social change and her message has reached more than 200 million people around the world.
Kate is a multi-award winning & highly adaptive Insurance executive who’s 25-year career has spanned across Australia & the UK for major Insurers, Insuretech, Adjusting & Engineering firms as well as Residential & Commercial repair delivery for Tier 1 Insurance builders.
Kate is currently Vice-Chair of AiBEC and Head of Disaster Recovery & Government at ARC Projects. Over the past 12 months Kate has contributed significantly to key industry engagements within the claims & regulatory space including: AiBEC’s submission to the ICA- Expert Reports Best Practice Standards; AiBEC Submission to CGC - priorities for 206/27; and co-creation of the upcoming Bond University short course powered by AiBEC & ANZIIF: “Understanding Obligations and Implementing CPS 230”
Some of Kate’s awards & achievements include:
Winners List - Insurance News - 2026 APAC Elite Women
Winners List – Insurance News – 2026 AUS/NZ “Hot List”
Winner – 2016 Woman’s Agenda Entrepreneur of the Year
Business News Australia - Top 40 Under 40 (Brisbane)
Finalist – 2017 Channel 7 Business Person of the Year
Finalist - 2017 Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Business News Australia)
Melanie is a Principal in Barry Nilsson’s Insurance & Health team based in Brisbane. She has over 20 years’ experience in insurance law and specialises in public liability, professional indemnity, defamation, subrogated recovery claims, and coverage advice. Melanie acts for local and international insurers and reinsurers, as well as government agencies and large corporate clients.
She is consistently recognised in Best Lawyers Australia for Insurance Law, Personal Injury Litigation and Product Liability Litigation, and in 2026 was named Lawyer of the Year for Insurance Law (Brisbane). Melanie is also listed in Doyle’s Guide as a leading Public and Product Liability lawyer and has twice received the Client Choice Award for Insurance in Australia, recognising excellence in client care and service (2018 and 2021).
Melanie also plays an active leadership role in the insurance industry and is currently National President of the Board of Directors of the Australian Insurance Law Association (AILA), having served on the committee since 2013.
Milia Xystros is Head of TPA Claims at Crawford Australia, where she leads the delivery and growth of the TPA business, one of the organisation’s key service lines.
A qualified lawyer with more than a decade in legal practice, Milia brings deep expertise across claims management, risk, compliance and operational strategy. Her role connects technical knowledge with practical execution, enabling teams to deliver consistent outcomes for clients and customers.
Belinda is the Chief Executive People, Legal and Corporate Services at Suncorp, overseeing People, Legal, Company Secretariat, Procurement, Real Estate and Partnering teams. With nearly 20 years of legal practice experience in Australia and South Africa, she has also led major organisational transitions, including Suncorp Bank’s sale to ANZ, and previously served as Group General Counsel.
Belinda’s HR leadership is centred on building future-fit capabilities with a performance edge, ensuring Suncorp’s sustainability and capacity to deliver for their customers. She is focused on investing in people, recognising their loyalty, and prioritising psychological and social safety across the organisation.
Shalini Sharma is Deputy Chief Risk Officer at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance – Australasia, and a trusted risk, compliance, and governance leader with over 25 years of experience across regulatory and financial services environments in Australia and internationally.
Her career spans all three lines of defence, with deep expertise in strengthening governance, constructively challenging risk assumptions, and ensuring emerging threats are effectively surfaced and acted upon. Shalini is particularly passionate about elevating the impact of the second line of defence (2LoD), helping organisations move beyond technical compliance to achieve meaningful risk influence.
Earlier in her career, Shalini served as a Regulatory Supervisor at the Reserve Bank of Fiji, where she led the development of Licensed Financial Institution and Banking Supervision guidelines, shaping regulatory oversight frameworks at a national level.
In her current role, Shalini leads the Second Line of Defence and has been instrumental in delivering several global risk transformation initiatives. She champions a “Doing the Right Thing” mindset, with a strong focus on fostering cultures of transparency, integrity, and accountability.
With a foundation in business ownership and over 20 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer, including within the insurance industry, Debbie serves as the General Legal Counsel for Attvest and is part of the Executive Leadership Team. Responsible for Attvest’s Legal, Compliance, Risk Management, and Human Resources functions, Debbie brings a pragmatic, business-centric approach. She simplifies complex legal and compliance challenges into clear steps, collaborating with the business to deliver value-adding solutions.
Ellen currently leads the Cyber Incident Management Team at Canopius, working closely with claims as a part of the “First Notification of Loss” process. Her unique perspective being “at the coalface” with Insureds in distress provides considerable experience as to why and how human interaction, compassion, and empowerment affect claims outcomes heavily. She was also recently nominated as the Cyber Professional of the Year – Financial Services in the 2026 Australian Cyber Awards for her work with her team.
