Australia Pacific Operations Board

Mark Joiner

Independent Non-Executive Chairperson

Mark has more than 30 years of international and Australian top tier business experience.

Throughout his career, Mark has served as Executive Director of Finance for National Australia Bank Group, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy and Mergers and Acquisitions for Citigroup’s global wealth management business in New York, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Boston Consulting Group and Associate Director of Australian Ratings (now Standard & Poor’s). Mark has also held directorships at Clydesdale Bank Plc, Boston Consulting Group and JBWere.

Mark holds an MBA with distinction from the Melbourne Business School and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (England and Wales).

In addition to chairing the QBE Australia Pacific Operations (AUSPAC) Board, Mark chairs the Nominations Committee.

Sue Houghton,  Chief Executive Officer, QBE Australia Pacific

Sue Houghton

Chief Executive Officer, QBE Australia Pacific

Sue Houghton brings more than two decades of experience in the Financial Services sector to her role leading QBE Australia Pacific.

An accomplished senior executive with a career spanning operations, finance and strategy, Sue is known for her sound judgment, deep industry knowledge and passion for purpose-driven leadership. Her successful track record driving positive change, championing customer-centred thinking, and cultivating diverse and high performing teams has earnt her a reputation as one of the industry’s most highly regarded leaders.

Before joining QBE, Sue was Managing Director of Insurance for The Westpac Group. She has also held senior leadership and management roles at organisations including Wesfarmers Insurance, Insurance Group Australia and Arthur J Gallagher.

Sue is a member of the Champions of Change Coalition and is a Director and immediate past President of the Insurance Council of Australia.

Chris Esson, Chief Financial Officer, QBE Australia

Chris Esson

Chief Financial Officer, QBE Australia Pacific

Chris brings extensive outside-in industry and investor perspectives to QBE and is passionate about building on the Brilliant Basics programme to deliver attractive and sustainable returns.

Prior to joining QBE in 2020, Chris gained more than 20 years of experience in the international insurance and banking industries. From 2016, he was Group Investor Relations Director at Aviva plc, one of the leading international insurers based in the UK. Before that, he spent 15 years as an equity analyst where he led highly ranked teams covering the insurance sector with Macquarie Bank and Credit Suisse in Australia, Asia and Europe. Chris qualified as a chartered accountant and began his finance career at KPMG.

Dave Curran

Independent Non-Executive Director

Dave has worked in the Finance and Technology industries for over 35 years.

He has built significant experience in digitally transforming organisations to better serve their customers and deliver stronger performance. During his executive career, Dave was the Group CIO at Westpac, led the Core Modernisation transformation at Commonwealth Bank and served as a partner at Accenture.

Dave has a passion for developing the future leaders of tomorrow and is also committed to doing his part in the battle against cancer.

He is a Non-Executive Director at ASX and the cyber-technology company, Quintessence Labs. Dave also sits on the board of Tour de Cure and chairs the board of The Westpac Scholars Trust.

Dave chairs the Transformation and Technology Committee.

Andrew Horton

Andrew Horton

Group Chief Executive Officer

BA Natural Sciences, ACA

Andrew joined QBE as Group Chief Executive Officer in September 2021. He was previously the CEO, and before that the Finance Director, of Beazley Group, a specialist insurer based in the United Kingdom with operations in Europe, the United States and Asia. Prior to this, he held various senior finance roles in ING, NatWest and Lloyds Bank. Andrew has more than 30 years’ experience across insurance and banking, and has extensive experience across international markets.

Ming Long AM

Independent Non-Executive Director

Ming has more than 25 years’ experience in financial management and senior executive experience in real estate, media, and funds and investment management. She held senior executive positions including CEO and CFO positions in real estate leading both listed and unlisted entities through challenging markets and uncertain economic environments.

Ming is currently a Non-Executive Director of Telstra, IFM Investors, CEDA, and Chair of Diversity Council Australia. She is also a Member of ASIC’s Corporate Governance Consultative Committee, on the Steering Committee for the Climate Governance Initiative with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and is a Global Ambassador for Business Events, Sydney. She previously served as Chair of AMP Capital Funds Management Limited, a Non-Executive Director of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand, Property Council of Australia, a Member of the Finance and Audit Committee at Sydney University, an Executive Director of Investa Funds Management, and Managing Director of Investa Property Group Holdings.

Ming is a Fellow Chartered Accountant, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She holds a Bachelor of Economics and Laws from Sydney University and an MBA from University of Technology, Sydney.

Ming chairs the Board Audit Committee and People and Remuneration Committee.

Portrait of Helen Nott

Dr Helen Nott FAICD

Independent Non-Executive Director

Helen is an experienced independent non-executive director, driven by a sense of purpose and strength of values. She is passionate about building innovation, resilient organisations that deliver value to stakeholders and that strive to make a difference in the community in which they operate.

With experience across health, insurance, sport, aged care and disability services and financial services, Helen’s current boards include Australian Unity Ltd (ASX:AYU); QBE’s Australia Pacific portfolio of companies (QIA, QBE LMI and QII); and the New Zealand Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). Previous boards include Healthdirect Australia, Paralympics Australia, Parasport Australia and QBE Life (Australia).

Leveraging innovation and data intelligence to deliver customer value and business efficiency have been central to Helen’s career, which has included senior leadership roles with IAG and QBE, global strategy consulting with Strategy& and PwC Corporate Finance and working with digital start-ups.

Helen started her career as a research scientist for the CSIRO’s Mathematics and Information Sciences division (now Data 61) and was part of the foundation team for Murdoch University’s School of Engineering. Helen’s PhD in Engineering focused on using data and analytics for optimal decision making in the agriculture industry. She has a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

melanie willis

Melanie Willis

Independent Non-Executive Director

Melanie has extensive experience in corporate finance, strategy, innovation, and investments both in executive and non-executive roles across a number of sectors. These include financial services, infrastructure, property, investment management, technology and retail.

With significant board level experience in both local and international businesses, Melanie currently chairs the Risk Committee at Challenger, Audit and Risk at Pexa, and Remuneration and Audit at PayPal Australia.

Melanie’s experience as a director includes growing companies through acquisition and offshore expansion, building new revenue streams, and transitioning businesses facing disruption into customer-led by building out multi channels, platforms and adopting new technologies. She was previously NSW chapter head and board member at Chief Executive Women and chair of the education committee for the 30% Club.

With a strong passion for the start-up community, Melanie acts as adviser, advocate and investor for a number of ventures, including Sendle and Noahface. As former CEO at NRMA Investments, Melanie was responsible for the company’s core $600 million investment portfolio and commercial businesses, Thrifty, Travel and Holiday Parks. Previously she held senior executive roles at Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust.