Melissa Cantell, appointed last year to lead Aon’s NZ business, speaks to CoverNote about her experiences in the industry and her hopes for the sector. Cantell’s career has included spells as chief executive officer at Fidelity Life and chief operating officer at IAG.
How did you first get into insurance?
Like many people, I joined the insurance industry by accident, but I have stayed on purpose. I joined originally to take up a transformation opportunity, helping to lead large-scale change through a customer-focused lens. I had come from the consumer products sector and thought it would be interesting to apply those skills to a different industry – but thought I would move on once the job was done. However, what I discovered was that insurance is not only strategically and intellectually challenging, but also an industry with a deep purpose and ultimately focused on helping people in their most challenging times. That really connected with me – and now I’ve been here for ten years!
How has the market changed since you started?
The most significant shift I've noticed is the rapid evolution of the challenges our clients are facing - the range of risks they face is larger than ever before, whether it's the magnitude of events like weather-related incidents in New Zealand or new complexities surrounding cyber and artificial intelligence.
As the world grows more challenging, Aon’s role as a risk expert and advisor is to be prepared to meet these challenges alongside our clients to help them make better business decisions. How can we ensure that we're the most knowledgeable, experienced and insightful, so that we can provide the best guidance? The type of advice needed is evolving rapidly, unlike anything we've seen before.
What have been the biggest achievements of your career to date?
Over the course of my career, I have been lucky to be involved in some amazing roles doing some interesting things – from working on huge transactions as an M&A lawyer to being part of incredible global FMCG brands, and more recently having the opportunity to lead interesting strategic change within the insurance industry.
However, it’s not the big, exciting things that happened in those roles that stick out for me. It’s the more personal aspects that are the most memorable achievements – the customer that you helped put back on their feet, the colleague whose career you supported, and the communities you partnered with to drive positive social change.
It’s a privilege in a role like mine to be able to have that sort of impact, and making sure I use that platform well and wisely is important to me.
What do you love most about the insurance broking sector?
What I’m enjoying most about being on the broking side is the connection we have to businesses around Aotearoa. I love learning about our clients’ businesses and helping solve their challenges – no two clients are the same, so you’re always learning and innovating.
That connection to business means we are also deeply connected to the New Zealand economy. Whether we’re working with a small business or a large corporate, helping our clients manage their risks helps keep New Zealand strong, and that’s a really rewarding part of our work.
You have recently been appointed CEO of Aon New Zealand. What are the biggest challenges facing Aon in the NZ market?
Aon’s challenges are our clients’ challenges. Our world has become more volatile - economically, socially and geopolitically - than ever before, and we need to be ready to meet those challenges with our clients. That means we need to be one step ahead, understanding emerging risks, and providing advice and solutions that are relevant and innovative in this rapidly changing landscape.
Where are the biggest opportunities for Aon in NZ?
As always, our opportunities are the flip side of our challenges. If we want to provide the best possible solutions, advice and service to our clients in these volatile times, we need to deeply understand the current and emerging risk landscape, and also deeply understand our clients’ needs. That means we need to be curious, creative and continuously learning – which is what makes our jobs so interesting.
What would you like to see change in the broking industry?
I think there is an opportunity for everyone in the insurance industry to work more closely together, whether it is as an underwriter, a broker, a financial adviser or one of the many other participants in the insurance model – we all have the shared purpose of helping New Zealanders. Of course, we all have our different roles to play within that model and healthy tension is important, but at the end of the day the better connected and more aligned we are, the better the outcomes will be for our clients and customers.
What advice would you give to young people starting out in the broking sector?
My advice is the same regardless of the industry you’re starting out in:
Be curious – ask lots of questions and be willing to learn.
Be patient – if you focus on doing your current job well, the next opportunities will come.
And most importantly – be happy. We spend a lot of time at work and while some days might be harder than others, ultimately if you love what you do and it aligns with your values, even the tricky days will still be rewarding.
