Our People
Ā Tātou Tāngata
Our People
Ā Tātou Tāngata
Tim Graon
Tim Graon became Chief
Executive of the Insurance
Council in November 2012. Tim
has extensive experience in
Jane Brown
Tim Grafton became Chief Executive of the Insurance Council in November 2012. Tim has extensive experience in providing strategic, policy and communications advice to public and private sector…
Sarah Knox
Tim Graon became Chief
Executive of the Insurance
Council in November 2012. Tim
has extensive experience in
John Lucas
Tim Grafton became Chief Executive of the Insurance Council in November 2012. Tim has extensive experience in providing strategic, policy and communications advice to public and private sector…
Yvonne Wynyard
Tim Grafton became Chief Executive of the Insurance Council in November 2012. Tim has extensive experience in providing strategic, policy and communications advice to public and private sector…
Christian Judge
Tim Graon became Chief
Executive of the Insurance
Council in November 2012. Tim
has extensive experience in
Kris Faafoi
Chief Executive
Kris Faafoi joined the Insurance Council of New Zealand Te Kahua Inihua o Aotearoa (ICNZ) as Chief Executive in April 2024. He is a former member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister who served in a number of roles, including Minister of Justice, Immigration, Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Broadcasting and Media. Before that, Kris worked as a journalist, including at TVNZ and the BBC.
Sean Fullan
Resilience and Recovery Manager
Sean joined the Insurance Council in 2023 as the Resilience and Recovery Manager. In this role, he works with members to develop sector positions to advocate for national investment in resilience and adaptation to natural hazards. He facilitates the Climate Change Standing Committee and is a member of the Advisory Board of Victoria University of Wellington’s Chair in the Economics of Disasters and Climate Change. He coordinates the insurance sector’s role in response to catastrophe and natural hazard events, maintaining relationships with central and local government to assist in insurers’ critical role in recovery from disasters. With over 20 years’ frontline experience from the response and recovery from many insurance catastrophes in both the United States and New Zealand, he has an in-depth understanding of natural hazards and their impact on insurers and communities.
Susan Ivory
Regulatory Affairs Manager
Susan Ivory joined the Insurance Council in 2023. As Regulatory Affairs Manager, Susan’s work focuses on advocacy on regulatory issues and working with members, government and stakeholders to promote policies that support a strong and stable insurance industry. She also facilitates the Council’s Regulation and Liability Committees. Before joining the Council, Susan worked in financial services regulation and policy in New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and as a lawyer in the banking industry. Susan has a law degree from Victoria University of Wellington and a Master’s degree from King’s College London.
Sarah-Jane Knox
Consumer Affairs Manager
Sarah-Jane Knox joined the Insurance Council in 2015 as Communications Manager and took up a new role as Consumer Affairs Manager in 2020.The Consumer Affairs role is responsible for working with the general insurance sector to improve customer outcomes and is the Fair Insurance Code and complaints expert. Sarah-Jane also runs the industry’s Personal Lines (home and contents), Travel and Employment and Education Committees. She holds a MSc (Distinction) in Responsible Business Practice from the University of Bath UK and a Bachelor of Management Studies (Honours) from the University of Waikato.
John Lucas
Insurance Manager
John Lucas joined ICNZ in 1996 as Insurance Manager. He is responsible for the Motor, Commercial Property, Marine and Finance Committees.John began his insurance career with NZI in the early eighties, specialising in farm insurance and commercial property underwriting. He then moved to the UK where he worked for a number of broker firms before specialising in insolvency insurance placement in the London and Sydney insurance markets. John is a Senior Associate of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance.
Patrick O’Meara
Communications Manager
Patrick O’Meara joined the Insurance Council in January 2024 as Communications Manager.In his role, Patrick is responsible for developing and managing ICNZ’s communication needs to support a resilient, sustainable and inclusive insurance industry that safeguards New Zealand. Before joining the Council, Patrick worked in senior communications roles in Government, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and Transpower and was an economics and business journalist for two decades.
Yvonne Wynyard
ICR Manager
Yvonne joined ICNZ in April 2018 as manager of the Insurance Claims Register (ICR). Yvonne graduated with a Master of Training Development and Bachelor of Administrative Leadership from the Universityof New England, Sydney, Australia. She spent 22 years with the New Zealand Army as an intelligence practitioner, trainer and manager and a further 9 years with ACC in which she developed and implemented their intelligence capability, including database design and training. Yvonne’s role is to provide oversight of the ICR, liaise with internal and external stakeholders, provide analytical support to ICR members and manage fraud related issues in the insurance industry. She is also the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) Manager.
