Home
Choose a perspective
What we’ve learnt
Where 25 years has taken us
1
Two decades of profitability through the fine art of managing market cycles
2
Taking the lead in building Australia
3
4
Energy agility
Increasing complexity of casualty claims
5
Importance of long-term partnerships
6
Enduring partnerships
An insurance partner, not just an insurance supplier
7
Meeting the needs of mid-size companies
8
Strength of partnerships in the rising cost of property claims
9
The benefit of insuring with a mutual
10
Here when you need
11
The art of specialty claims
12
Helping recover
13
Speed matters
Claims+ for construction clients
14
Think you don’t have any environmental contamination exposure?...
15
Finding solutions
Giving hard to place small businesses a home
16
West side story: The art of staying the course with Australia’s mining industry
17
First insurer to have a risk engineer for PI construction risks
18
The enduring impact of PFAS 'forever chemicals'
19
New ways of insuring against extreme weather
20
Market outlook
The art of enduring relationships
21
Insuring Australia’s energy transition
22
23
Recall: believe it or not
Navigating AI risks in insurance
24
Enhancing your cyber defence strategy
25
Back to 25 Perspectives
What we’ve learnt
1
Where 25 years has taken us
From small origins as a staff of 10 back in 1999, Liberty Specialty Markets has spent 25 years constantly evolving to deliver the confidence and continuity Australian brokers and clients need in the face of risk and uncertainty. Fast-forward a quarter of a century and Liberty is now a billion dollar Australian commercial insurer, and has consolidated its market presence as a leading insurer to companies at the big end of town through to small privately-owned family businesses.
by the Liberty team
President & Chief Underwriting Officer - Asia Pacific Australia
Liberty helps protect more than
20,000
businesses across Austalia.
81
of the S&P ASX100.
Initially dealing with big corporate casualty, construction and energy accounts, today Liberty helps protect more than 20,000 businesses across Asia Pacific. This includes 81 of the S&P ASX100 who choose to work with our integrated team of underwriters, risk engineers and claims professionals.
While the past 25 years have been marked by significant change, there have been clear constants underpinning more than two decades of sustained profitability and growth. Despite an ever-changing insurance landscape, the advent of new technologies and the emergence of new and more complex risks, our commitment to long-term partnerships that help our clients navigate the unexpected has remained unchanged. As many of our people who have been with us since the beginning can attest, we put our people and policyholders first. It’s what differentiates us and ensures our shared success.
Making employees proud of the company they work for provides a strong platform, and Liberty has always aimed to differentiate itself.
Mike Abdallah
President & Managing Director Liberty Specialty Markets Asia Pacific
Liberty today
To celebrate 25 years, we reflect on how far we’ve come and hear from some of those who have been there from the start.
Product spread
22 commercial product lines spanning everything from environmental, commercial and cyber crime, construction, energy, accident and health, directors and officers, marine and M&A.
Casualty was our largest product line until 2017, when Professional & Financial Risks rapidly grew. Today Liberty is the largest financial lines insurer in Australia.
Technical expertise
13,000
claims managed per year.
Clients and turnover
Over
20,000
clients collectively contribute to $1 billion in gross written premium in Australia. 500 Australian clients have been with Liberty for more than 20 years.
Staff and reach
450+
staff across Australia.
6 members of the executive team with the company for 20+ years, including the longest-standing insurance chief executive in Australia.
Specialist Insurer of the Year
A repeat winner in the National Insurance Business Australia (NIBA) Awards and leading general insurer across 40 categories.
Part of the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group (Liberty Mutual), a Fortune 100 company with more than 110 years of specialist expertise.
A snapshot of what we insure
From heavy industry, mining and minerals, agribusiness, and travel through to family-owned micro sectors like equine, tree lopping, gardening and landscaping and everything in between.
Here’s a cross-section of dynamic companies Liberty has helped insure over the past 12 months.
Renewables
Mining, energy & agriculture
Retail
Construction
Transportation & injury
Directors & officers
Art & entertainment
Medical & travel
A mine that extracts rare earth elements used to create powerful permanent magnets used in wind turbines and electric vehicles.
The construction of Australia’s largest solar farms in the Central West and New England region of NSW.
The construction of Australia’s largest battery energy storage system in Melbourne.
The operations of Australia’s only green hydrogen plant.
The boards and officers of around half the mining and energy companies listed on the ASX.
The transportation of $1.6 billion worth of rice.
Medical and travel cover for miners in Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Mali, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Ivory Coast.
13,000 small businesses through our casualty and PFR programmes.
The transport of medical equipment, tunnel boring machines, trains and even an 80 metre wind turbine blade.
The cast and crew of 20 Australian TV and stage shows for group personal accident and corporate travel.
500,000-plus Australian employees through our excess workers compensation product.
The construction of the $5b Western Harbour Tunnel from Birchgrove to North Sydney in Sydney.
More than 2000 Boards of Directors of Australian companies
Product recall protection for around a third of the products for sale in major supermarkets.
Priceless fine art exhibitions.
Then and now
To help celebrate 25 years in Australia, we asked some of our longest-serving team members to reflect on the journey that led Liberty to become a leading underwriter to companies of all sizes across the country.
Fiona Climpson
Deputy Head of IT
I joined Liberty 23 years ago in an Underwriting Assistant role.
I still recall in my first few weeks being asked to transcribe the information on a placing slip for an energy account onto a processing sheet (which I needed to hand write), then the underwriter manually checking and approving my work, before entering it into Genius. No authorisation was allowed until the underwriter logged into the Genius green screens and verified. It was all manual – today we have BOTS, integration, applications and reporting to either handle this work or assist with the validation.
Noel MacCarthy
Former Head of Casualty
Despite being retired I’m not missing the opportunity to share three early memories. We once assessed an ASX100 client with a particularly ominous pollution exposure and stood firm on higher pricing. The client replaced us with another insurer offering cheaper terms, and within 36 months, it suffered two major pollution losses totalling over $35m leading ultimately to that insurer closing its divisional offices in Australia. This was one of those moments that taught me to trust our risk engineering evaluations and stick to our guns, as it could have significantly altered our history. Secondly, following the collapse of HIH and The Independent in the London market in 2001, we saw a lot of casualty business come back to the general market. Early on we realised HIH policies no longer had IBNR protection and swiftly introduced HIH Tail Buy-out coverage, and for many months we were the only insurer offering this protection. The fact we could move fast and adapt in this way is classic Liberty. Thirdly, the diverse assignments of our casualty risk engineers – in consecutive weeks we sent one to assess a heroin injecting center then to a theme park! It just goes to show the breadth of what we insure.
Chris Maclean
PFR Manager NSW
I think for me the most significant aspect of working at Liberty is the development of staff and the opportunities that development offers.
Since the very start I've been exposed to so many countries and markets. Personally, I’ve had opportunities to write financial lines business across the whole Asia Pacific region, set up the financial lines team in Queensland, manage the Project PI Portfolio in Australia and more recently manage one of the largest financial lines teams based here in Sydney.
Cindy Tang
Head of IT
Perhaps 25 years doesn’t sound that long? Well it’s long in terms of IT development! In my early days at Liberty:
- Everyone’s computer password was the same – it was either Liberty1 or Liberty11. How far we have come!
- International calls were charged by the minute, and one of our earliest hacks was diverting Mike’s voicemail to an international destination where calls cost $6 per minute – if only hacks were as simple these days!
- Our earliest raters were developed internally by an actuary and underwriter in excel. Today these raters involve hundreds of lines of coding and a full team to maintain them.
- We loved our blackberry devices, and when they were phased out and we moved to iPhones, it was a thing to put a cover on with a little keyboard.
Ben Hissey
Senior Vice President
Things have changed pretty dramatically since those first 18 months when we had no systems, no claims centre, no SAP and no Microsoft Teams—just excel.
We had no technology beyond fax machines which went absolutely crazy when HIH folded and the market firmed in 2000. I don’t think the sight of green fax paper spewing all over the floor will ever leave me. We used to collate the bound business from the products at the end of each month, add the reinsurance and allow for the claims and then deduct the expenses which all came from corporate cards via the bank. It was all very manual and the results were sent to our Boston head office at the end of the month – all done of course by fax. Back then there was no two-day close and early core operating system finish, the numbers were submitted at day 10 which in short order became day five; all very different to the machine that we have today.
Guy MacGregor
Senior Risk Engineer
The changes over the years have been too wide and deep to list, but there have been a number of memorable milestones, for example checking our email systems at the stroke of midnight in 2000 to see whether the Y2K bug was a ‘thing’. I remember John McCabe coming back to our New Year’s party in the boardroom, beaming, to reassure us that Liberty would probably not collapse. Then there were the weeks in London, in our earliest days, persuading brokers and reinsurers that we were indeed credible, followed by the engineers wading through reams of printed reports piled too high to see over, looking for worthy projects that might help save the day. I also have fond memories of the whole Claims and Engineering team going to Brisbane to meet a client to kick-off our first ‘lead’ construction project. And who could forget the tense discussions over insuring a diesel power station in Asia, after a cracking machinery loss, while we tried to solidify our robust reputation? Has anything remained the same? Certainly: Integrity. Friendships. Humour. Trust. Why would anyone want to work anywhere else?
Vanessa Maher
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
The decision we made collaboratively early on to decentralise the claims team, where claims sit alongside underwriters and risk engineers—and outside of Sydney was a defining moment for me.
While some insurers have all of their claims staff, irrespective of which product they support, sitting together within one centralised claims model location, it doesn't support the sharing of information across a function. There was some initial resistance to sitting in the branches, however now we recognise that our seating arrangements are a key contributor to enabling the integrated business unit and providing more informed support to our customers and learnings to our underwriters. Today we have claims presence in seven of our office locations across Asia Pacific, supporting our “local first” ideology.
John McCabe
Chief Operating Officer
I have been fortunate to participate in many challenges and successful events during my time at Liberty.
I remember twice in the early 2000s working on due diligence for Liberty to potentially purchase HIH. Thank goodness we didn't proceed! During the GFC we also learned some valuable lessons that reinforced our ‘manage the cycle’ philosophy. When the world is in turmoil, being consistent and running a sustainable business is important for our staff, our customers and our broker partners. Again, during Covid we were there for our stakeholders because we had prepared to conduct business virtually. This helped us be there and stand out when people needed us.
Paul Scales
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Having a variety of roles and responsibilities, I feel very fortunate to be able to work in a company that has such great culture.
People do comment on our staff being here for a long time, but in a way, it’s not that surprising when you take into account how we treat people. While we have an executive team, I’ve never felt there has been a hierarchy. I think we’ve been challenged in a good way, and that made us all better.
Noel MacCarthy
Vanessa Maher
Guy MacGregor
Cindy Tang
Fiona Climpson
Chris Maclean
Ben Hissey
Paul Scales
John McCabe
Chief Operating Officer
Chris Maclean
Noel MacCarthy
Cindy Tang
Guy MacGregor
Vanessa Maher
John McCabe
Fiona Climpson
Ben Hissey
Paul Scales
Ben Hissey
Noel MacCarthy
Paul Scales
Guy MacGregor
Vanessa Maher
John McCabe
Cindy Tang
Fiona Climpson
Chris Maclean
Ben Hissey
Guy MacGregor
Chris Maclean
Paul Scales
Vanessa Maher
John McCabe
Cindy Tang
Noel MacCarthy
Fiona Climpson
Guy MacGregor
Cindy Tang
John McCabe
Vanessa Maher
Fiona Climpson
Chris Maclean
Paul Scales
Ben Hissey
Noel MacCarthy
Guy MacGregor
Cindy Tang
John McCabe
Paul Scales
Fiona Climpson
Chris Maclean
Vanessa Maher
Noel MacCarthy
Ben Hissey
Cindy Tang
John McCabe
Ben Hissey
Noel MacCarthy
Chris Maclean
Guy MacGregor
Fiona Climpson
Paul Scales
Vanessa Maher
John McCabe
Ben Hissey
Vanessa Maher
Chris Maclean
Fiona Climpson
Cindy Tang
Paul Scales
Noel MacCarthy
Guy MacGregor
Chris Maclean
Fiona Climpson
Ben Hissey
Guy MacGregor
Vanessa Maher
Paul Scales
John McCabe
Noel MacCarthy
Cindy Tang
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Senior Vice President
Senior Risk Engineer
PFR Manager NSW
Deputy Head of IT
Former Head of Casualty
Head of IT
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Senior Risk Engineer
Head of IT
Deputy Head of IT
PFR Manager NSW
Senior Vice President
Former Head of Casualty
Chief Operating Officer
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Chief Operating Officer
Head of IT
Deputy Head of IT
Senior Risk Engineer
Senior Vice President
Former Head of Casualty
PFR Manager NSW
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
PFR Manager NSW
Chief Operating Officer
Former Head of Casualty
Senior Risk Engineer
Senior Vice President
Head of IT
Deputy Head of IT
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Deputy Head of IT
Chief Operating Officer
Senior Vice President
Head of IT
Senior Risk Engineer
PFR Manager NSW
Former Head of Casualty
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
PFR Manager NSW
Former Head of Casualty
Chief Operating Officer
Senior Risk Engineer
Head of IT
Deputy Head of IT
Senior Vice President
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Senior Risk Engineer
Deputy Head of IT
Former Head of Casualty
Head of IT
Chief Operating Officer
PFR Manager NSW
Senior Vice President
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Deputy Head of IT
Head of IT
Senior Vice President
Chief Operating Officer
Former Head of Casualty
PFR Manager NSW
Senior Risk Engineer
Head of Casualty Australia and NSW Branch Manager
Chief Risk Officer & Head of Digital Strategy
Senior Vice President
Chief Operating Officer
Senior Risk Engineer
PFR Manager NSW
Deputy Head of IT
Former Head of Casualty
Head of IT
Liberty’s 25 Perspectives from 25 Years
For greater insights into pre-empting and navigating the changing insurance and business landscape with confidence, continue reading the full complement of articles within Liberty’s 25 Perspectives from 25 Years series, which celebrates a quarter of a century’s experience drawing on technical and specialist expertise to tailor solutions for the Australian market.
Discover more of our 25 Perspectives
Previous Perspective
Next Perspective
Related content
Our Australian capabilities
by The Liberty Team
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
25 years, 22 product lines, 450+ team members, 20,000 clients and one billion dollars in annual gross written premium. What a journey we're on in Australia. When I first started up this business in 1999 I really had no idea of the growth potential we had. We started in our early days giving “hard to place” insurance risks a home. Today we craft commercial and specialty insurance solutions for companies of all shapes and sizes, from Australia’s largest companies and government organisations, right through to micro start-ups.
For me, satisfaction always comes from working with our broker partners to really get to know clients, understanding what they need today and are likely to need tomorrow. We know that business never stands still and we take great satisfaction being by our client’s side on their journey – be that through technological innovation, royal commissions or regulatory change.
What an honour to lead Liberty’s growth into a billion-dollar Australian insurer and to do that with such a loyal and dependable team of people. A lot has changed over the past 25 years, but there is also plenty at our core that really stays the same. We’ve worked to capture insights into who we are and what makes us tick. I can’t wait to see where the next 25 years take us.
Mike Abdallah
President & Managing Director Asia Pacific
1-5
What we’ve learnt
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Liberty Specialty Markets has spent 25 years constantly evolving to deliver the confidence and continuity Australian brokers and clients need in the face of risk and uncertainty. Under the perpetual leadership of Managing Director Mike Abdallah, we’ve delivered 24 years of continuous profitability, ensuring the shared success of our people, policyholders and partners.
Liberty is part of Australia’s growth story. We’ve taken the lead in insuring many businesses and initiatives in Australia, playing a role in most major infrastructure projects, covering everything from bridges, roads, mines, waste treatment plants to hospitals and prisons.
With Australia now one of the largest global growth regions for renewable energy projects, we’re seeing our Energy portfolio rapidly evolve as we support the transition from conventional power risks to renewable energy projects.
Casualty claims have also changed a lot in our 25 years. The days of single party actions are over, and we’re well equipped to manage the increasing complexity of casualty claims and navigate the myriad of parties involved.
From small origins back in 1999 to now being the largest professional and financial lines insurer in Australia, in part one of our 25 Perspectives for 25 years series we reflect on what we’ve learnt.
From 10 people with fax machines in 1999, to today being a team of 450 using transformational technology. We’ve come a long way in 25 years.
Mike Abdallah
President & Managing Director Asia Pacific
1
02:00
Where 25 years has taken us
by the Liberty team
2
02:00
Two decades of profitability through the fine art of managing market cycles
by Mike Abdallah
3
02:00
Taking the lead in building Australia
by Brett Gardiner
4
02:00
Energy agility
by Sara Sampaio Soares
5
02:00
Increasing complexity of
casualty claims
by Richard Jessup
6-10
Importance of long-term partnerships
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Experience has shown that a long-term tripartite relationship between broker, client, and Liberty creates a sound foundation for long-term success. Close partnerships enable Liberty to get to the heart of every client’s business to understand their risks, objectives, and how we can best tailor insurance to their unique needs.
While Liberty forged our reputation in Australia on big and complex risks, today we partner with business and government organisations of all shapes and sizes.
We focus on being an insurance partner, not just an insurance supplier, with our team of underwriters, risk engineers and claims professionals getting to know clients and how to support their evolving operations.
Whatever their size, our clients have the security of knowing that, as a mutual, we’re committed to their shared success and offer stability and peace of mind, even during turbulent times.
We explore the true value of partnerships in part two of our 25 Perspectives from 25 Years series.
In Queensland alone, Liberty has more than 50 clients that have insured with us for over 20 years.
Helen Brand
Vice President, Head of Strategy, Risk & Planning, Casualty & PFR and QLD Branch Manager
6
02:00
Enduring partnerships
by Helen Brand
7
02:00
An Insurance partner, not just an insurance supplier
by the Liberty team
8
02:00
Meeting the needs of mid-size companies
by Ben Hissey
9
02:20
Strength of partnerships in the rising cost of property claims
by Joel Proud
10
00:50
The benefit of insuring with
a mutual
by the Liberty team
11-15
Here when you need
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
No matter the size of a client’s business or how significant a claim might be, at Liberty we understand that insurance claims are about more than money – they all involve people dealing with loss. That’s why we put people first and prioritise relationships.
When a Sydney pharmacy was forced to close due to severe smoke damage, Liberty’s loss adjuster was there within two hours—and the pharmacy was back in business six weeks later. Another client – a food manufacturer - found their livelihood at stake due to a third party packaging issue and Liberty’s Claim’s Recovery team helped them recover $750,000 in uninsured losses. We’re one of few insurers to offer this recovery service.
Not all claims can be concluded swiftly. Complex commercial claims can disrupt both businesses and lives for many years. Construction claims usually involve complicated contractual obligations, and increasingly frequent environmental pollution claims are catching businesses by surprise. These specialty claims require technical skills, a focus on solutions, and importantly, an empathetic human touch.
Part three of our 25 Perspectives from 25 Years series looks at what it means to have Liberty here when you need us.
Over the past 25 years, we have been there for our clients through the worst of weather events, raging bushfires, cyber-attacks, oversight and inadvertence.
Robert Mercer
Head of Claims for Asia Pacific
11
02:00
The art of specialty claims
by Robert Mercer
12
02:00
Helping recover
by Jon O’Riordan
13
02:45
Speed matters
by Blooms the Chemist
14
03:00
Claims+ for construction clients
by Samantha Thorndike
15
02:20
Think you don’t have any environmental contamination exposure? Think again.
By Alan Thorn
16-20
Finding solutions
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Liberty bucks the trend towards one-size-fits-all industry solutions by tailoring protection to precise needs. This includes businesses in industries that have historically found it hard to get cover as they are risky, difficult, dangerous or specialised.
Liberty’s portfolio includes liability programmes for mum and dad type speciality businesses, right through to highly tailored covers for 81 of the S&P ASX100. We understand the lifecycle risks unique to the diverse companies in mining and resources and work in partnership with them from exploration through to closure and reclamation.
We're are also committed to staying ahead by tracking risks as they emerge. Liberty was the first insurer in Australia to introduce an in-house risk engineer dedicated to Professional Indemnity construction risks, and produce a lot of risk engineering insights to help brokers and clients understand evolving exposures, including PFAS forever chemicals. Liberty is also pioneering innovative parametric insurance covers to help businesses protect their earnings from the impact of extreme and unpredictable weather.
Part four of our 25 Perspectives from 25 Years series takes a deep dive into our tailored solutions.
Liberty is able to provide liability cover for many businesses that get blacklisted as uninsurable industries by general insurers.
Natalie Manton
Assistant Vice President, Asia Pacific
19
02:00
The enduring impact of PFAS 'forever chemicals'
by Angelo Maniatis
16
02:00
Giving hard to place small businesses a home
by Natalie Manton
17
02:00
West side story: The art of staying the course with Australia’s mining industry
by the Liberty team
18
1:45
First insurer to have a risk engineer for PI construction risks
by Tim Bugg
20
02:00
New ways of insuring against extreme weather
by Michael Lincoln
21-25
Market outlook
- Chapters
- descriptions off, selected
- default, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
The all-important tripartite relationship we foster between client, broker and insurer focuses more on making informed purchases than pricing alone. Establishing relationships that are less transactional and more enduring resonates deeply with our clients.
In a softening market, it can be tempting to shop around for the lowest price – but the cheapest solution may not be the best. Many of our clients first joined Liberty when market conditions forced their incumbent insurers out of the market. As a mutual, we offer consistency through fluctuating conditions and are invested in the shared success of our clients and broker partners.
Liberty continues to provide protection for complex and emerging risks, including substantial support for Australia’s transition to renewable energy. While the risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) are still too ill-defined for one definitive AI insurance policy, several of our existing policies can work seamlessly together to provide comprehensive cover. As cyber security continues to evolve we’re keeping our clients and broker partners abreast of the latest developments and best practice for protecting against new and emerging risks. As Australia’s largest product recall insurer, we also help clients prepare for the unexpected and our fun Recall Believe it or Not shines a light on some of the more bizarre recalls that companies now find themselves exposed to.
In part five of our 25 Perspectives from 25 Years series we delve into the market outlook and the trends and emerging risks shaping the sector now and in the future.
As well as sustainability in underwriting, we’re looking for sustainability in the industries involved. We want to see our clients succeed.
Todd Woodard
Head of Underwriting Professional & Financial Risks, Asia Pacific
21
02:00
The art of enduring relationships
by Marcus Thomas
22
02:00
Insuring Australia’s energy transition
by the Liberty team
23
02:00
Recall: believe it or not
by Shelley Devane
24
02:20
Navigating AI risks in insurance
by Rian Wickens
25
02:00
Enhancing your cyber defence strategy
by David Gallagher