Former QBE executive John Trowbridge recognised for work in insurance and business

John Trowbridge cleaned up insurance problems nationwide after decades in the sector. He also went to war with Sydney’s rugby obsessed school principals to let kids play AFL.

John Trowbridge has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to business. Picture: Britta Campion

John Trowbridge is no stranger to a disaster.

He combed through the aftermath of the 2011 Brisbane Floods and 2022 NSW and Queensland floods, as well as the dysfunction in the strata insurance sector.

He is recognised for his service to business and risk management in the King’s Birthday honours, earning him a Medal of the Order of Australia.

But the 78-year-old roamed widely in his career. He was instrumental in the rise of AFL in Sydney in the four years he chaired the Swans.

A third-generation public servant, Mr Trowbridge joined ASX-listed insurer QBE where he was one of the underwriter’s few trained actuaries to become a senior executive.

He recalls stepping into the private sector as a move into the unknown.

“General insurance was immature technically in Australia in the 70s and 80s,” he said.

“But the support since of the actuarial profession has contributed greatly to changing that.”

John Trowbridge headed a review into life insurance. Picture: Chris McKeen

By the 1980s, as Australia’s economy opened up, Mr Trowbridge moved from insurance to establish his own eponymous consulting firm.

Trowbridge Consulting grew quickly, merging with Tillinghouse in 1993 before an eventual split after disagreements over management style.

The general insurance-focused consulting firm was making strides as Australia’s older mutual underwriters turned into insurers of today. This included NRMA, which listed in 2000, before becoming Insurance Australia Group in 2002.

Trowbridge Consulting later merged with Deloitte.

From 2006 to 2010, Mr Trowbridge headed the insurance arm of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the industry’s co-regulator.

He recalls his term at the Sydney Swans, between 1998 and 2002, with huge enthusiasm. The Canberra expat, who grew up with AFL, chaired the Swans as the club made inroads displacing the city’s rugby allegiances and code rivalries.

The rise of the inter-school AFL sporting league was a proud achievement of those years.

“The game of AFL has gone from strength to strength in Sydney since the mid 90s but you wouldn’t believe the lengths some headmasters went to to stop kids playing. Kids were having their Sherrins confiscated,” he said.

“We were promoting the game itself, not the Swans.”

The $3.2bn 2011 Brisbane floods and the subsequent inquiry headed by Mr Trowbridge as well as former Suncorp executive Jim Minto and Melbourne lawyer John Berrill nearly unravelled Australia’s insurance market.

The Lismore floods of 2022. Picture: Cath Piltz

“Until 2011 insurers did not offer flood cover and it wasn’t talked about much either except when a flood occurred,” Mr Trowbridge said.

“That has changed and so we come forward 14 years and now there’s a much wider understanding across the whole community.”

The industry has moved to obsessing over the minutiae of risk, he said.

“We can work out enough about individual risks, and insurers can apply that knowledge, but we now seem to be approaching the point where the age-old pooling concept of insurance fragments,” he said. Insurance is simply pooled risk.

“The good part is that people are generally less often overcharged for risks they don’t have but, on the other hand, what we see now with flood cover is that the cover is unaffordable for many.”

Originally published as Former QBE executive John Trowbridge recognised for work in insurance and business