Maria Falas, Head of Strategy and Transformation, ClearView Wealth Limited

Maria has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Holding tertiary qualifications in marketing, law and econometrics, Maria has also held her NSW legal practising certificate since February 2001. Maria worked in the legal industry for Ebsworth & Ebsworth (now HWL Ebsworth) and Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst) before joining ING in 2005 in a compliance role.

Maria held various roles in compliance and risk management at ING and OnePath.  Maria then moved into the business in a Client Solutions Manager role for OnePath’s group life insurance business. In this role, Maria thrived on improving customer experience with a particular interest and passion in mental health.

Given the growing impact of mental health on our communities, Maria was appointed Head of Mental Health & Wellness for the life insurance business of ANZ Wealth in October 2017. In this role, Maria worked with leaders across the life insurance value chain to ensure that the mental health customer value proposition was aligned throughout the life insurance business. In 2019, ANZ Wealth transitioned their OnePath life insurance business to Zurich.  Maria continued in her role as the Head of Mental Health & Wellness. 

Through Covid-19 challenges, Maria also took on the role of Project Manager – Return to Office. In this role, Maria managed the safe transition back to the office of Zurich’s employees around Australia.

Maria then joined ClearView in May 2021 as the Head of Strategy & Transformation.  She is thrilled to be part of this exciting purpose-led organisation with a clear vision and goals.  In this role, Maria will focus on capturing opportunities to grow, streamline processes, and enhance the customer experience.

In her spare time, Maria chases the sun with her husband Tony and their 3 children.

Anne Clarke, Chief General Counsel and Company Director, TAL

Anne Clarke was appointed Chief General Counsel in September 2015 and is currently responsible for the Office of Chief General Counsel which incorporates Corporate Legal, Litigation, Regulatory Affairs, Company Secretary and Office of the Trustee. Her role is to support TAL in achieving its business objectives within the regulatory and legal environment, providing broad strategic advice and manage important regulatory relationships.

In 2017, Anne was appointed Chief Risk Officer in conjunction with her Chief General Counsel role.  In 2019, Anne’s legal responsibilities were expanded to include the Internal Dispute Resolution Team and the External Dispute Resolution Teams and responsibility for Government Relations liaising with Members of Parliament and Senators.  Given these extended responsibilities and the increase in legislative and regulatory oversight, in 2020 Anne stepped down from the Chief Risk Officers role.

Anne has over 25 years’ experience in financial services, starting her legal career in the financial services litigation practice at Mallesons Stephen Jacques (now King Wood Mallesons) and moving from private practice (Herbert Smith Freehills) to join AMP in 2014.  During her time in private practice, Anne was named as a leading practitioner in Best Lawyers for a number of years.

Anne is highly regarded in the financial services industry for both her technical legal skills, and her ability to operate and communicate at senior executive, board and regulator levels. She has also earned a reputation for having a comprehensive knowledge of the commercial and industry framework.

Ben Walsh, Chief Insurance and Investments Officer, AIA

Ben Walsh joined AIA Australia as Chief Life Insurance Officer in June 2020.

This role was broadened in November 2020 to include responsibility for AIA’s Savings & Investment business and in December 2020 to include responsibility for AIA’s Health business.

Prior to joining AIA, Ben worked for Mercer and its sister company Marsh for more than 25 years. He was the Managing Director and CEO of Mercer in Pacific, where he was responsible for delivering the firm’s business segments of Health, Wealth and Career. Ben was also the Australian Chief Country Officer of Mercer’s parent, the global professional services firm Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) and a Director of seven Mercer Boards across Australia & New Zealand, including the Trustee of the AU$25 billion in funds under management Mercer Master Trust.

Ben was appointed to the Faculty of Business & Economics Advisory Board with The University of Melbourne in 2015, the Board of World Bicycle Relief (Australia) in 2019, and also served on the Board of the Financial Services Council from 2018-2020. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Honors from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Business Administration from the Melbourne Business School.

Sean Williamson, Chief Group Insurance Officer, MLC

Sean leads the Group Insurance function at MLC Life Insurance, which focuses on our end to end Group Insurance proposition bringing all our partners the full benefits and scale of our distribution, technology and innovation capabilities.

Sean has previously held senior executive positions at TAL and AIG. He has over twenty-five years’ experience gleaned in the life insurance and broader financial services industry across a range of senior management, strategy, distribution, actuarial and product roles.

Sean holds a Bachelor of Economics (Actuarial Studies) from Macquarie University, and post graduate diplomas from the Securities Institute of Australia.

Princess Navarro, Founding Director, INSUPER SOLUTIONS

Princess is the Founding Director of INSUPER SOLUTIONS.  A business created to help financial service organisations implement changes brought about by regulatory, code of practice reforms and product changes to insurance in Superannuation.  Princess also recently joined MLC Insurance, managing In Force Retail Insurance and Mature Term products.

With over 30 years of combined Group and Retail insurance experience, Princess is known for forging strong relationships with her industry peers and serving in a number of industry working group committees, including AIST’s Insurance Symposium Committee, tasked with insurance issues, reforms and strategic developments.

A strong advocate of insurance, Princess is passionate about developing people and the community’s understanding of the value of insurance in their Superannuation. She contributes through speaking at conferences, responsibly curated social media posts, including videos on her YouTube channel, The Insuperable Princess.  For more information about her work, check out her LinkedIn details.