The top brokers in Victoria and Tasmania have been recognised with the first batch of
NIBA awards.
The awards, which recognise excellence in insurance broking, have been given to the broker of the year and young professional broker of the year for the region with each of the winners moving on to contest the national prize at the NIBA conference to be held in Melbourne in September.
Bunmi Ajayi, managing director and CEO of Megalines Insurance & Risk Advisers, took out the coveted broker of the year award, sponsored by
Zurich, for the region.
Nigel Clutterbuck, managing director of
Steadfast Taswide and Teresa Westgarth, manager corporate for AJG, took home the runners-up awards.
“I feel really honoured and privileged to be able to lift the award,” Ajayi told
Insurance Business.
“Before the awards day and given the high calibre and pedigree of the other two nominees, I figured it would have been good enough just to be counted in such distinguished company but to hear my name reeled off as winner on the day at the Crown Palladium really made it a sublime moment for me, the most distinguished yet of my career.”
In the young professional broker of the year category, Luke Chrzanowski, account manager for Tresidder Insurance Group, won the
Vero-sponsored award.
Damon Edwards, operations manager for Adroit, and Avi Tataka, marketing manager for Scott Winton, were named as runners-up for the region.
NIBA CEO
Dallas Booth said that the standard of the award winners highlights the quality within the broker industry.
“The standards of professionalism and competence in the insurance broking profession are very high, so we congratulate not just our winners, but all our finalists who really represent all that is good about the broker community across Australia,” Booth said.
Ajayi also noted the importance of industry recognition not only for those receiving the plaudits but for the industry at-large as it seeks to grow and develop.
“When we recognise our high-performing professionals, it motivates and encourages a higher professional engagement from practitioners across the industry,” Ajayi said.
“It lifts the profile of the profession and sends the clear message that indeed, the profession of insurance broking is one worth celebrating.
“What it also does is to encourage and attract young and new entrants into the profession by making it aspirational. The larger society outside of the industry would view our profession in whatever light we chose to portray it therefore, if we celebrate our profession and professionals, we can expect others to join in and vice versa.”
Both Ajayi and Tatarka were
named in the Insurance Business Elite Brokers 2015 earlier this year.
