Australia’s top insurance industry CEOs, their profits and wealth revealed

The lavish, cashed-up lives of Australia’s insurance bosses have been revealed including harbourside mansions and multimillion-dollar pay packets.

These are the leading faces behind Australia’s insurance companies who rake in millions of profit a year.

As industry regulators warn the Australian insurance industry to clean up its act – or else – the sector’s profits are booming amid steep premium hikes and soaring complaints.

Official data shows that after a Covid slump, general insurance profits have soared by 195 per cent. Meanwhile average home insurance premiums have skyrocketed by 28 per cent, as companies jack up prices in response to last year’s devastating floods.

Newly appointed CEO Nick Hawkins of IAG has earned millions in the role. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

These are Australia’s insurance leading insurance bosses, their harbourside mansions and multimillion-dollar pay packets.

KING

Nick Hawkins, Managing director and CEO, IAG

Brands: NRMA, SGIO, SGIC, CGU, Swann Insurance, WFI

Profit: $347m last year

Pay packet: $3.4m last year

Nick Hawkins lives in a sprawling five-bedroom mansion in Mosman. Picture: Supplied

The house has five bedrooms and three bathrooms.

IAG has paid Hawkins almost $6.8m since he took over from Peter Harmer in 2021. Harmer was on even more – the company paid him more than $8.8m over the course of 2019 and 2020. Hawkins lives in a five-bedroom, three-bathroom mansion that sprawls across three levels of exclusive Sydney suburb Mosman and boasts a lounge room that opens onto a balcony looking out to the pool and onwards to Balmoral Beach. He paid almost $5.7m for it a decade ago, but it’s likely worth as much as twice that today.

LORD OF LIFE

Sir Clive Cowdery, Executive chairman, Resolution Life

Brands: AMP Life, AIA Life

Profit: $583m in 2021

Estimated fortune: £140m ($270m)

Sir Clive Cowdery is worth $270m. John Feder/The Australian.

The son of a single mum, Brit Cowdery would be worth even more but he used part of his vast fortune to found the Resolution Foundation, a London think-tank “focused on improving the living standards of those on low-to-middle incomes”. Formerly known as “Big Clive” before losing a lot of weight, he worked his way up from insurance salesman to bargain-hunting corporate raider. These days he sits atop a global insurance empire that includes Resolution Life, registered in tax haven Bermuda.

Steve Johnston was previously chief financial officer at Suncorp Group before becoming CEO.

BRAND BARON

Steve Johnston, Group CEO and managing director, Suncorp

Brands: Bingle, Shannons, Terri Scheer, CIL, GIO, Vero, AAMI, Apia, Essentials by AAI

Profit: $681m last year

Pay packet: $4.9m last year

Steve Johnston of Suncorp owns a beachside apartment at Burleigh Heads, QLD. Picture: Supplied

Steve Johnston, Suncorp owns an apartment at Burleigh Heads, QLD. Picture: Supplied

Johnston got the top job at Suncorp, which is both a bank and an insurer, in 2019. Before that he was chief financial officer. Over the past four years Suncorp has paid him an eye-watering $14.68m. Reportedly lives in a “comfortable but not lavish home” in Brisbane’s eastern suburbs but it can be revealed he also owns a $1.2m apartment on the Gold Coast in a tower overlooking the golden sands of Burleigh Beach.

SUPER MAN

Brett Clark, Managing director, TAL Life

Brands: TAL, Asteron

Profit: $343m this year

As a subsidiary of vast Japanese insurer Dai-ichi Life, which made a profit of ¥296.1bn ($3.14bn) last year, TAL isn’t required to disclose pay to individual executives.

Brett Clark is the Chief Executive Officer and managing director of TAL Life.

However, it paid key management, including Clark, a total of $22.58m last year and $17.2m the year before. Clark has been boss since 2015. TAL mostly provides life insurance through super funds and would have a very low profile if it wasn’t a prominent AFL sponsor – it signed a three-year deal with the league this month.

Greenstone LTD Co-founder Richard Enthoven (left) and CEO Mark Reid.

PRINCE OF PETS

Richard Enthoven, Executive director, Hollard

Brands: Australia Post Pet Insurance, Australian Seniors, Bow Wow Meow Pet Insurance, BUPA Pet Insurance, CommInsure (home and contents), Everyday Insurance From Woolworths, Fastcover Travel Insurance, Guardian Insurance, MiPet Insurance, Pet Insurance Australia, Petsecure, Prime Pet Insurance, Prosure Vet’s Own Pet Insurance, Real Insurance (general insurance), RSPCA Pet Insurance

Profit: $82m last year

Enthoven owns a historic mansion in Sydney’s Darling Point. Picture: Supplied

The house was built in the 1850s and cost $18m. Picture: Supplied

Hollard is a private company owned by South African billionaire clan the Enthoven family, which is also behind chicken chain Nando’s, so it doesn’t disclose individual executive pay. But it paid a total of almost $6.7m to key management last year and $3.5m the previous year. Enthoven lives in an $18m mansion in Sydney’s Darling Point, built in the 1850s and dripping with stained glass, that sits on more than 1300 sqm of land, including a pool. He bought it in 2019 after selling a waterfront pile in nearby Point Piper for an eye-watering $21.8m.

SWISS CONNECTION

Richard Feledy, Managing director, Allianz Australia

Brands: Allianz, Defence Health (general insurance), Open Insurance (some policies), ANZ (credit card insurance), Teachers Health (general insurance)

Profit: $312m last year

Allianz MD Richard Feledy owns a sizeable portfolio of properties in Sydney. Picture – Chris Pavlich for The Australian.

Swiss giant Allianz, which makes tens of billions of dollars of profit globally every year, doesn’t break out the pay packets of bosses at its remote Australian outpost. However, Feledy’s stipend is enough to afford a mini property empire in Sydney – Feledy owns an apartment in Mosman he picked up for $640,000 in 2014, a home in northern beaches suburb Curl Curl he bought for $820,000 in 2002 and a unit in next-door suburb Brookvale he bought for $910,000 in 2021. Fedely got the top job in 2018 after serving as Allianz Australia’s chief technical officer.

QBE Group CEO Andrew Horton arrived in Sydney from the UK. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

GLOBAL GURU

Andrew Horton, Group chief executive officer, QBE

Brands: QBE

Profit: $1.17bn last year

Pay: $6.88m last year

Andrew Horton owns a property in Sydney’s leafy east. Picture: Supplied

The property is believed to be worth $10m. Picture: Supplied

QBE is one of the big global insurers, with a lot of business in the US. It has paid Horton more than $10m since he started as CEO in 2021 as the permanent replacement for Pat Regan, who left suddenly in 2020 after a complaint from a female staff member. He rents a gracious three-bedder in Woollahra, estimated to be worth about $10m.

Originally published as Australia’s top insurance industry CEOs, their profits and wealth revealed