Board of Directors

Duncan West

Independent Director & Chairman

Duncan West joined the Board in 2014 and became Chair in 2015. He is a former CEO of Vero Insurance (1998-2007) and CGU Insurance (2008-2011) as well as EGM for Insurance at NAB Wealth (2011-2013). He is a past president of Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and has been a Director since 2002.

He is also currently a Chair of Lawcover Insurance and Pacific Life Re (Australia) and a Director of Avant Insurance and Hallmark Life and General Insurance companies. Duncan has over 30 years experience in Insurance and Financial Services, starting with Royal Insurance in the UK in 1983, working in India from 1995 to 1998 and then in Australia.

Duncan has a BSc (honours) in Economics, is a Fellow of the CII and a senior associate of ANZIIF. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and past Chairman of National Transport Insurance and past President of the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.

Richard Enthoven

Non-Independent Executive Director & CEO

Richard Enthoven is the Founder of The Hollard Insurance Company and the co-founder of Greenstone Pty Ltd. He currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of The Hollard Insurance Company. 
 
Richard is the President and Chairman of the Insurance Council of Australia. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Head Over Heels, a not-for-profit organisation that supports a portfolio of high-potential women-owned businesses. Richard is also a Director of the Ascham School Council of Governors.
 
Richard holds a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Southern California.

Alexandra (Alex) Thomas

Non-Independent Executive Director

Alexandra Thomas was appointed CEO and Managing Director of PetSure in October 2013. As CEO Alex has driven strong revenue and EBITDA growth, and customer led digital transformation. Alex has deep senior management experience, with a proven record of developing and executing strategy that enables growth in customers and profitability as well as building high performance teams.

Prior to PetSure Alex held various executive roles within Optus, most recently as Vice President Optus Business overseeing the managed services business for Enterprise and Government sector with whole of business ICT solutions.

David Matcham

Independent Director

David Matcham joined Hollard in 2009 after working at Lumley Insurance for 32 years from 1977. David was the Managing Director at Lumley from 1999 until 2003. Upon acquisition by Wesfarmers in 2003, David became the CEO and retired in 2009.  In October 2010 David was appointed as CEO of the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation for a three year term.

David is a former Director of the Insurance Council of Australia and a former Director and Chair of the CREATE Foundation, a not for profit organisation which aims to improve the quality of lives of children in care.

David attended University of Technology, Sydney where he graduated with a B. Bus., Management with Finance in 1988.

Ellen (Ellie) Comerford

Non-Independent Executive Director

Ellie Comerford has worked for more than 30 years in financial services in Australia and overseas across a number of banking and insurance businesses. Ellie's responsibilities have covered both executive and directorship roles and experiences gained include strategy planning and business development, commercial and operation management, product and relationship management, with ongoing focus on leadership development and people engagement.

From 2010 to 2016, Ellie was CEO & Managing Director of Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia an ASX top 200 listed company. Before joining Genworth, Ellie worked at First American Financial Corporation, a leading global title and specialty insurance company for close to a decade both in Australia and internationally in executive and directorship roles. Prior to that Ellie worked at Citigroup in a range of executive roles.

In addition to being a Director for Hollard Australia, Ellie is currently a Director of Heartland Group Holdings (NZX: HGH), Heartland Bank Limited and Australian Seniors Pty Limited. Ellie is also a member of Chief Executive Women, an organisation focused on increasing women's representation in senior leadership across Australia.

Ellie attended Macquarie University, Sydney graduating with a Bachelor of Economics in 1983.

Jane Tongs

Independent Director

Jane joined Hollard in November 2018, bringing a wealth of experience across a range of industries including insurance, property, agriculture, government and charitable organisations plus business start-ups. Previously, Jane was a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers specialising in financial services and litigation.

Jane is also a Williamson Fellow and graduate of Leadership Victoria. She holds an Executive MBA from Melbourne University, a Bachelor of Business from RMIT and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Accountants and Certified Practising Accountants of Australia. 

Katrina Barry

Independent Director

As Managing Director at Contiki Holidays, Katrina looks after the Australasian business in addition to regional operations and overseeing the Busabout brand.
 
Prior to joining Contiki, Katrina spent 2-3 years with BT Financial in senior leadership roles leading various direct businesses, and digital, marketing and customer experience across multiple brands.  Previous to that she spent 7 years with the Virgin Group where she held a variety of roles from leading strategy at Virgin Money, to investment management with Virgin’s Private Equity arm, to being one of the founders of Virgin Active gyms in Australia.  Prior to joining the Virgin Group, Katrina worked as a management consultant, for 7 years, with many years at McKinsey and Company.
 
Katrina holds Commerce and Law degrees from the University of Auckland.  She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Director of Contiki and Busabout and a previous Director of various Virgin and BT businesses.

Karl Armstrong

Independent Director

Karl joined Hollard in June 2019.  He has more than 47 years’ experience in the insurance industry with specific experience in Underwriting, Reinsurance and management with 18 years in the UK market.  He held the role of Chief Executive Officer of NZI from 2008 to 2014 when he joined IAG NZ as Chief Risk Officer. 
 
From January 2016, Karl’s role at IAG NZ also incorporated closure of Canterbury Earthquake Claims and direction of the new Kaikoura event.  In addition, he also undertook responsibility for Pricing, Product and Underwriting across all brands before retiring in 2018.
 
Karl is also a member and Past President of ANZIIF and has been on their Board for 9 years.  In 2014, he was awarded the “Insurance Leader of the Year” for NZ and in 2017 received the ANZIIF Lifetime Achievement Award.
Karl’s qualifications include:  ANZIIF (Fellow) CIP and Dip Mgmt (Open).

Noeline Woof

Independent Director

Noeline Woof joined the Hollard Board in 2018 and is Chair of the Risk Committee. Noeline is also a Director of Pacific Life Re (Australia). She has senior executive expertise in risk and financial management in regulated markets and deep knowledge of general insurance, health insurance and injury compensation schemes.

Prior to commencing her Director career, Noeline was Chief Risk Officer and Chief Actuary at Allianz Australia (2011-2017) and Actuarial Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (2005-2011). She also worked with APRA as Senior Policy Advisor on the Life and General Insurance Capital reforms.

Noeline is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Richard Heilig

Non-Independent Executive Director

Richard joined the Hollard Insurance Group in South Africa in 1998 and relocated to Hollard Australia in 2008. He has more than 20 years industry experience and has worked in a number of senior roles across the organisation including Head of Hollard Business Partners and Chief Operating Officer. Richard currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of Hollard Commercial Insurance and is responsible for all commercial insurance operations in Australia. He also serves as a member of Hollard’s Reinsurance Committee.
 
Richard's qualifications include an MBA, a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) and he is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.

Tony Richardson

Independent Director

Tony Richardson is a Fellow of ANZIIF. He started his insurance career as a junior underwriter with Commercial Union in Melbourne in 1973. He moved to Munich Re in 1977, and opened a branch for American Re in Melbourne in 1982.

In 1983 Tony and family relocated from Melbourne to Singapore to open American Re’s Asian operations, writing reinsurance in (the then) six ASEAN countries plus Hong Kong, Taiwan, Sri Lanka and India. This was a very exciting time to be in Asia in a period of rapid growth throughout the region.

Tony moved back to Australia in 1990 and started as CEO for American Re for Australia and NZ in 1991. Tony managed American Re’s Asia Pacific business from 1999 until the Munich Re merger in 2002. From 2003 until mid-2007 Tony was Operations Manager at IAG Re, the captive reinsurer for IAG. Since 2007 he has had various independent consulting roles, most recently with Ernst & Young.