Business Made Personal

Insurance claims management isn't just about making the right technical decision. It is also about helping people understand what is happening when they are already dealing with stress, uncertainty and disruption.
In Episode 151 of Business Made Personal, Mark Silveira speaks with Vicki Mullen, Senior Consultant at Finity Consulting, lawyer and former Australian Financial Complaints Authority ombudsman. Across almost 30 years in government and financial services, Vicki has worked across the High Court of Australia, the NSW Parliament and Cabinet Office, industry bodies, direct insurance, reinsurance and dispute resolution.
That breadth gives her a rare view of what happens when insurance works well, and where trust can break down.
Vicki explains why claims can become technically complex when policy exclusions, competing causes of damage and supply-chain bottlenecks collide. She also shares a simple but powerful analogy: customers can cope with a late train when they understand why it is late and when it is expected to arrive. Claims are no different.
The conversation explores:
Why communication can preserve confidence during a delayed claim
How AI could give claims professionals more time with customers in distress
Why insurance can be fiercely competitive and highly collaborative
How solar panels and batteries are changing the risk profile of Australian homes
Why leaders should look beyond the obvious candidate when building teams
Vicki also reflects on failing her first contracts law exam, working with High Court Justice Gerard Brennan, navigating imposter syndrome in reinsurance, balancing a career as a single parent and building a career through unexpected opportunities.
Business Made Personal is hosted by Mark Silveira, exploring the real journeys of leaders in insurance, business, and beyond.
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For enquiries, collaborations, or to suggest a guest: mark@bmppodcast.com.au

Insurance industry leadership starts with a choice, not an accident, and Chris Mackinnon has spent 35 years proving it. Newly appointed Head of Munich Re Specialty – Global Markets, Australia, Chris joins Mark Silveira on Business Made Personal to talk about building an insurance company from scratch, after more than a decade at Lloyd's running businesses across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

Chris comes from five generations of Lloyd's underwriters, what he calls "a genetic disposition", but his own path wasn't handed to him. He landed in Australia at 21 with a 20-kilo backpack and an ego to match, assuming his father's name would open doors. It lasted about five seconds. That early lesson in humility shaped the leadership style he's known for today: hire the person, not the job description, and let people find where they add the most value.

In this conversation, Chris and Mark cover:

- Why he refuses to say he "fell into" insurance, and what he tells young professionals instead
- The influence of his trailblazing mother, one of the first senior women at Lloyd's
- Building genuinely inclusive, multilingual leadership teams across nine countries and 33 languages
- The hardest professional stretch of his career — returning to the UK during the global financial crisis
- Bringing the Dive-In Festival to Australia, and what six years chairing it taught him about his own unconscious bias
- What the insurance industry does brilliantly, and the one thing he'd change about public perception

Whether you're a broker, underwriter, claims professional or industry leader, this episode is a reminder that a long career in insurance is a choice worth making loudly.

Business Made Personal is hosted by Mark Silveira, exploring the real journeys of leaders in insurance, business, and beyond.
Never miss an episode: Follow & Subscribe on https://bit.ly/bmp-Website
Join the conversation: Connect with us on https://bit.ly/bmp-LinkedIn
For enquiries, collaborations, or to suggest a guest: mark@bmppodcast.com.au

Benildus Saw turned down loss adjusting twice before desperation made him say yes. Twenty-six years later, he runs Justicia Adjusters as CEO and chairs the Risk and Technologies Board at the Asian Institute of Insurance. What's striking about his story is not the career arc but the through-line,  a formation in service, discipline, and human empathy that started long before he ever saw a claim file.
From seminary to claim site
At 19, Benildus entered College General Mario Field in Malaysia to discern a calling to the Roman Catholic priesthood. He studied scholastic philosophy, theology, and pastoral care for four years alongside the man who would become the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur. After leaving, he spent time in advertising before an economic downturn pushed him toward loss adjusting, a profession he had never heard of. A chartered loss adjuster offered to mentor him, and he accepted.
I had a senior business owner practicing chartered loss adjuster who took me under his wings and taught me. Fast forward 26 years later, here I am, still struggling to make a difference in our industry.— Benildus Saw, Ep. 149
Serving policyholders without bending the rules
Benildus describes a clear philosophy when a policyholder does not understand their policy: set time aside, do not charge for it, and explain what they bought and where they stand. He traces this directly to his grandmother's teaching about divine providence, the idea that not every act of help carries a price tag. For loss adjusters managing complex claims under time pressure, this is a concrete position on where professional duty sits relative to commercial reality.
What this means for your career
If you are entering loss adjusting from an unrelated field, find a chartered practitioner willing to mentor you through real claims. Benildus worked across a burst pipe, a factory fire, and a burglary in a single day during his early years.
Policyholders in crisis are not a problem to process. Benildus frames every claim as arriving at the darkest moment of someone's life; adjusters who treat it that way build a different kind of professional reputation.
Dialogue with the people you lead matters. Benildus shifted away from the authoritarian model of his own upbringing and says his children have changed his perspective; the same openness applies to how he runs his firm.
Business Made Personal is hosted by Mark Silveira, exploring the real journeys of leaders in insurance, business, and beyond.
Never miss an episode: Follow & Subscribe on https://bit.ly/bmp-Website
Join the conversation: Connect with us on https://bit.ly/bmp-LinkedIn
For enquiries, collaborations, or to suggest a guest: mark@bmppodcast.com.au

People-first leadership in insurance begins with a willingness to give others your knowledge, time and belief.
In this episode of Business Made Personal, Mark Silveira speaks with Linda Bennett, Senior Claims Advisor and Broker Partner at Crawford & Company, about the experiences that shaped her leadership, insurance career and commitment to mentoring others.
Linda Bennett's insurance career started in Hobart in 1998 as a credit controller, not exactly the origin story most people expect from someone who would go on to spend over 23 years in broking and then move into a senior claims and broker partnership role at Crawford & Company. What shaped her more than any job title, though, was a childhood moment that forced her to stand on her own two feet at nine years old.
Independence forged early
When Linda was nine, her seven-year-old sister Katrina was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that left her in intensive care on a ventilator. Linda's parents were at Royal Hobart Hospital around the clock for months, and Linda moved in with a family friend named Margaret Love. It was three to four months that changed her.
I became very independent at nine years old. I stood on my own two feet.- Linda Bennett, Ep. 148
That independence never left. Linda describes herself as fiercely protective of her sister to this day, and credits that period with forming the self-reliance that has carried her through a long professional life.
A caring instinct turned professional strength
Linda grew up wanting to be a nurse. Her mother worked in aged care for decades, bringing home washing from nursing home residents to make sure it wouldn't get lost. That level of personal investment in other people's wellbeing left a mark. Linda never made it to nursing, but she is clear that the caring instinct those early influences gave her became the foundation of her approach to leadership and client relationships in insurance. She describes herself as a hugger and a carer, and believes those traits are what made her the people leader she became across her career.
What this means for your career
Linda's story is a reminder that the qualities that make someone good at insurance work are often formed well before anyone steps into a brokerage or a claims office. The skills worth examining are not always the technical ones.
Your personal history, including the hard parts, can be the source of your most durable professional strengths.
A career that stays in one place geographically can still build serious depth and variety across roles and organisations.
The instinct to care for people, when applied consistently, becomes a leadership quality that is genuinely hard to teach.
Business Made Personal is hosted by Mark Silveira, exploring the real journeys of leaders in insurance, business, and beyond.
Never miss an episode: Follow & Subscribe on https://bit.ly/bmp-Website
Join the conversation: Connect with us on https://bit.ly/bmp-LinkedIn
For enquiries, collaborations, or to suggest a guest: mark@bmppodcast.com.au

Major complex loss in insurance is not just about technical expertise; it is about communication, judgement and the ability to guide people through pressure.
In this episode of Business Made Personal, Mark Silveira chats with Nigel Cook, Chief Executive Officer, Sedgwick Singapore, and Head of Major Complex Loss, Asia. Nigel shares how a trade apprenticeship in South Wales, an early move to Abu Dhabi, and decades as an expat have shaped his approach to engineering, loss adjusting, and leadership across international markets.
Nigel’s story moves from British Steel to the American Bureau of Shipping, New Zealand loss adjusting, Singapore and complex claims across Asia. Along the way, he explains why strong claims outcomes depend on more than policy interpretation. They depend on empathy, clear stakeholder communication and the discipline to keep people informed before issues go sideways.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
 How an engineering background helped Nigel understand complex claims 
 Why catastrophe response can take a personal toll on adjusters 
 How communication shapes trust in major and complex loss 
 Why Sedgwick is investing in younger adjusters through Pathfinder, Protégé and leadership development 
 How cross-border exposures are changing the speed and complexity of insurance 
For insurance professionals, brokers, adjusters, and business leaders, this conversation is a practical reminder that claims leadership is built on experience, resilience, and clear communication.
Business Made Personal is hosted by Mark Silveira, exploring the real journeys of leaders in insurance, business, and beyond.
Never miss an episode: Follow & Subscribe on https://bit.ly/bmp-Website
Join the conversation: Connect with us on https://bit.ly/bmp-LinkedIn
For enquiries, collaborations, or to suggest a guest: mark@bmppodcast.com.au