penunderwriting.com.au
“It is a priority for us to continue to tap the unmet needs of our clients and grow with them to understand how to service them properly and give them what they need in this ever-changing landscape”
Vivianne Gauci,
HomeEquity Bank
Read on
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PEN UNDERWRITING
Leadership
Headquarters:
Sydney, NSW
Year founded:
2013
Number of employees:
60
Phone:
02 9323 5000
Email:
info.au@penunderwriting.com
Website:
LinkedIn:
au.linkedin.com/company/pen-underwriting---Australia
SPECIAL REPORT
Home
Bio
Ken Keenan has over 35 years of insurance industry experience across numerous countries. He was appointed Pen chief executive in January 2018. Prior to this, he spent 10 years in Canada in a variety of roles, including CEO at Gallagher’s Canada, President at Noraxis Capital Corporation and President at Canadian Northern Shield. Earlier in his career, Keenan worked with RSA Zurich and Eagle Star in Ireland. He also spent two years with Eagle Star in the UK.
In his role with Pen, Keenan has overall responsibility for the direction and performance of the Pen business. “It is all about the people, the wonderful team members we have right across the Pen business, including those in its service centre in India, the people who work in the brokers we deal with across Australia every day who trust us to provide great solutions for their clients and finally, the incredible support we get from the executives and underwriters at the insurance companies we represent,” Keenan says.
Keenan lives in Sydney and is excited to have just been approved for his Australian citizenship.
Chief Executive
Ken Keenan
Alisa Martins was appointed COO of underwriting operations at the end of 2021 and is responsible for leading Pen’s property and liability underwriting teams, ensuring the company has the talent and tools to deliver outstanding service to its brokers and great results to its security. She recognises that people are key to the success of business and is dedicated to the growth, development and wellbeing of the company’s teams.
Over the 12 years Martins has been with Pen, she has led the analytics team and been responsible for BINDER governance and management. Martins has experience with both agencies and insurers in Australia and the UK and deep knowledge of the coverholder model across a broad range of products.
Chief Operating Officer, Underwriting Operations
Alisa Martins
Nick Best started with Pen in March 2022 as the property team manager, working with underwriting teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Prior to joining Pen, Best was a branch manager and broker at Insurance House. He also held a number of roles at QBE across underwriting, sales and distribution.
Best believes strongly that the insurance industry is very much a people business, and as a team, they are focusing strongly on the existing broker relationships and are continually looking to foster new relationships across Australia. The team underwrites a wide variety of occupations, including food and beverage, manufacturing, hospitality and wholesale. The team has extensive experience and the authority to make quick decisions and develop solutions with their partners.
Outside of insurance, Best is heavily involved in his local junior cricket teams despite an admission of his inability to play the sport.
Team Manager – Property
Nick Best
Lenu Lukose started with Pen in October 2021 as a property portfolio manager, working with the underwriting teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. He previously worked at One Underwriting, where he established the complex risk portfolio. Prior to that, he held underwriting roles at QBE and Calliden.
Lukose believes strongly that solution-based underwriting is the greatest catalyst for underwriting agency growth and strives to bring his team’s expertise to the market.
Outside of insurance, Lukose spends most of his time fishing or talking about fishing.
Property Portfolio Manager
Lenu Lukose
Kerrie Coxell joined Pen in February 2018, initially as an underwriter in the care team, and was appointed team manager in 2021. Prior to joining Pen, Coxell was an insurance broker for more than 25 years with experience servicing aged and disability care clients and as a loss adjuster for three years.
The Pen Care liability team offers bespoke combined liability (GL/PI malpractice and ML) products to the aged care and retirement village sectors and disability and home and community care providers. The team of four full-time underwriters pride themselves on their superior knowledge and insight into these sectors. They are passionate about assisting brokers and their clients to manage the risks associated with being service providers.
Coxell loves to engage and work with brokers to understand their clients’ needs, providing first-class service, knowledge and support that continues into the claims process.
Coxell spends her time living between the sunny Gold Coast and the thriving metropolis of Sydney – living her best life.
Team Manager – Care Liability
Kerrie Coxell
Paul Behm joined Pen in 2017 as hospitality underwriting manager.
Behm is a career insurance industry professional with 25 years of experience covering underwriting, business development, relationship management, broking and portfolio management.
For the last 13 years, Behm has been focused on the delivery of products to the hospitality sector and has built significant relationships across this industry group.
Behm has a passion for service that is translated into speed to market and deep knowledge of Pen’s products and how they relate to the hospitality industry.
Underwriting Manager – Hospitality
Paul Behm
Barry Long joined Pen in May 2021 and was appointed team manager at the end of 2021. He leads a team of highly experienced liability underwriters across the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane offices and is dedicated to providing outstanding service and technical expertise to the company’s brokers. Long and his team collaborate with brokers to develop innovative products and risk solutions across a wide range of liability classes, both primary and excess. The company’s broad appetite and superior capacity enable it to tailor its coverage to meet its clients’ needs.
Long began his insurance career after university, first in broking and then in underwriting financial lines. He moved into casualty underwriting in 2011, where he has underwritten and managed portfolios of complex corporate, energy, mining and construction risks, most recently at Zurich.
Team Manager – General Liability
Barry Long
Chris Bounos is the professional risks underwriting manager at Pen. He has been with the company since 2016. Bounos has been underwriting PI for 16 years, having worked at Dual, Allianz and Quanta.
The professional risks team specialises in excess loss, professional indemnity and cyber. The PI focus is mostly on the construction and engineering sectors for medium-sized and smaller corporate accounts, as well as lawyers and other miscellaneous professions. The company’s cyber facility has a very broad appetite and can accommodate risks up to $450m in turnover.
The professional risks team prides itself on service, technical knowledge and a solution-driven attitude for their broking partners.
Underwriting Manager – Professional Risks
Chris Bounos
Alicia Stell joined Pen as transport team manager in 2022 and is responsible for leading the fantastic team of transport underwriters.
Stell has over 20 years of experience in motor fleet underwriting and has held senior underwriting roles with extensive underwriting authority. Most recently, she was with National Transport Insurance, and prior to this, she was with Zurich. Stell brings vast underwriting knowledge and experience to Pen, along with deep market knowledge. Pen Underwriting has a well-established transportation portfolio that focuses on small to mid-sized fleets for heavy motor and commercial motor.
Team Manager – Transport
Alicia Stell
LinkedIn:
au.linkedin.com/company/pen-underwriting---Australia
Website:
penunderwriting.com.au
Email:
info.au@penunderwriting.com
Phone:
02 9323 5000
Number of employees:
60
Year founded:
2013
Headquarters:
Sydney, NSW
“It is a priority for us to continue to tap the unmet needs of our clients and grow with them to understand how to service them properly and give them what they need in this ever-changing landscape”
Vivianne Gauci,
HomeEquity Bank
“What sets Pen Underwriting apart is our people; every single one of us really wants to deliver for our brokers and capacity providers,” says Ken Keenan, chief executive. “We’ve done the math; between us, we have over 1,000 years of underwriting experience, and we leverage this every day to produce outstanding results.
“The onset of the pandemic really highlighted the importance of the wellbeing, growth and development of our people, so we prioritised making the experience of working at Pen a positive one – after all, it is our underwriters that serve our brokers and ultimately deliver profits to our security. Our aim is to empower our teams to utilise their skills, expertise, and experience to deliver the best results we can.”
Pen will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year, but its origins date back to the 1990s and the businesses of Interpacific Underwriting, Galaxy Underwriting and CBD Underwriting, all three of which were combined to form Australis in 2005.
Australis was located in Sydney and Melbourne and focused mostly on property, liability and aged care. Meanwhile, SRS Underwriting was headquartered in Brisbane with Melbourne and Sydney offices and focused on property, construction, professional risks and transportation. In 2013, Australis and SRS Underwriting merged to become Pen Underwriting.
Today, Pen is recognised as one of the leading agencies in Australia. With offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, they have a team of 60 underwriters and support teams.
Over the last decade, Pen has developed into a multi-line agency with extensive expertise in their product range, which spans property, casualty, financial lines, transportation and construction.
Pen has established a strong presence across a variety of industry sectors, including manufacturing, wholesale, food and beverage, logistics, hospitality, aged and community care, construction, and transport and storage.
Each risk placed with Pen is individually attended to by one of its many fantastic underwriters. As a specialist agency, they focus on medium-hazard trades and risks where their expertise allows them to work in partnership with their broker partners to develop bespoke solutions for the end client. All of their products are supported by highly rated insurers and reinsurers, sourced both locally in Australia and at Lloyd’s.
Pen has made significant investments in technology and data analytics and is on a journey towards end-to-end process automation over the next 12–18 months.
Core to their success is how they place their three key stakeholders at the centre of everything they do: Their teams – they look to attract and retain the best underwriters and support people in the market by making Pen a great place to work, by promoting a positive and inclusive culture, and by delivering on their employee value proposition. Their brokers – they never take their support for granted; their aim is for their exceptional service to make Pen the agency brokers turn to and be worth recommending to colleagues. Their security – they build and maintain close and sustainable relationships by delivering superior underwriting results through their data-led risk selection and pricing strategies.
“As to what’s next, we are looking forward with confidence,” says Alisa Martins, COO. “We are a sophisticated business with a clear value proposition and truly amazing people. However, we are also aware that we must continue to quickly evolve and adapt to maintain relevance in an ever-changing market. Having made significant investments in our people, technology and data analytics and working towards end-to-end process automation, we will be meeting future challenges better equipped than ever.”
Specifically, going forward, Pen is focused on
Alicia Stell
Team Manager – Transport
Chris Bounos
Underwriting Manager – Professional Risks
Barry Long
Team Manager – General Liability
Paul Behm
Underwriting Manager – Hospitality
Kerrie Coxell
Team Manager – Care Liability
Nick Best
Team Manager – Property
Lenu Lukose
Property Portfolio Manager
Alisa Martins
Chief Operating Officer, Underwriting Operations
Ken Keenan
Chief Executive
Leadership
Alicia Stell joined Pen as transport team manager in 2022 and is responsible for leading the fantastic team of transport underwriters.
Stell has over 20 years of experience in motor fleet underwriting and has held senior underwriting roles with extensive underwriting authority. Most recently, she was with National Transport Insurance, and prior to this, she was with Zurich. Stell brings vast underwriting knowledge and experience to Pen, along with deep market knowledge. Pen Underwriting has a well-established transportation portfolio that focuses on small to mid-sized fleets for heavy motor and commercial motor.
Team Manager – Transport
Alicia Stell
Chris Bounos is the professional risks underwriting manager at Pen. He has been with the company since 2016. Bounos has been underwriting PI for 16 years, having worked at Dual, Allianz and Quanta.
The professional risks team specialises in excess loss, professional indemnity and cyber. The PI focus is mostly on the construction and engineering sectors for medium-sized and smaller corporate accounts, as well as lawyers and other miscellaneous professions. The company’s cyber facility has a very broad appetite and can accommodate risks up to $450m in turnover.
The professional risks team prides itself on service, technical knowledge and a solution-driven attitude for their broking partners.
Underwriting Manager – Professional Risks
Chris Bounos
Barry Long joined Pen in May 2021 and was appointed team manager at the end of 2021. He leads a team of highly experienced liability underwriters across the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane offices and is dedicated to providing outstanding service and technical expertise to the company’s brokers. Long and his team collaborate with brokers to develop innovative products and risk solutions across a wide range of liability classes, both primary and excess. The company’s broad appetite and superior capacity enable it to tailor its coverage to meet its clients’ needs.
Long began his insurance career after university, first in broking and then in underwriting financial lines. He moved into casualty underwriting in 2011, where he has underwritten and managed portfolios of complex corporate, energy, mining and construction risks, most recently at Zurich.
Team Manager – General Liability
Barry Long
Paul Behm joined Pen in 2017 as hospitality underwriting manager.
Behm is a career insurance industry professional with 25 years of experience covering underwriting, business development, relationship management, broking and portfolio management.
For the last 13 years, Behm has been focused on the delivery of products to the hospitality sector and has built significant relationships across this industry group.
Behm has a passion for service that is translated into speed to market and deep knowledge of Pen’s products and how they relate to the hospitality industry.
Underwriting Manager – Hospitality
Paul Behm
Kerrie Coxell joined Pen in February 2018, initially as an underwriter in the care team, and was appointed team manager in 2021. Prior to joining Pen, Coxell was an insurance broker for more than 25 years with experience servicing aged and disability care clients and as a loss adjuster for three years.
The Pen Care liability team offers bespoke combined liability (GL/PI malpractice and ML) products to the aged care and retirement village sectors and disability and home and community care providers. The team of four full-time underwriters pride themselves on their superior knowledge and insight into these sectors. They are passionate about assisting brokers and their clients to manage the risks associated with being service providers.
Coxell loves to engage and work with brokers to understand their clients’ needs, providing first-class service, knowledge and support that continues into the claims process.
Coxell spends her time living between the sunny Gold Coast and the thriving metropolis of Sydney – living her best life.
Team Manager – Care Liability
Kerrie Coxell
Nick Best started with Pen in March 2022 as the property team manager, working with underwriting teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Prior to joining Pen, Best was a branch manager and broker at Insurance House. He also held a number of roles at QBE across underwriting, sales and distribution.
Best believes strongly that the insurance industry is very much a people business, and as a team, they are focusing strongly on the existing broker relationships and are continually looking to foster new relationships across Australia. The team underwrites a wide variety of occupations, including food and beverage, manufacturing, hospitality and wholesale. The team has extensive experience and the authority to make quick decisions and develop solutions with their partners.
Outside of insurance, Best is heavily involved in his local junior cricket teams despite an admission of his inability to play the sport.
Team Manager – Property
Nick Best
Lenu Lukose started with Pen in October 2021 as a property portfolio manager, working with the underwriting teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. He previously worked at One Underwriting, where he established the complex risk portfolio. Prior to that, he held underwriting roles at QBE and Calliden.
Lukose believes strongly that solution-based underwriting is the greatest catalyst for underwriting agency growth and strives to bring his team’s expertise to the market.
Outside of insurance, Lukose spends most of his time fishing or talking about fishing.
Property Portfolio Manager
Lenu Lukose
Alisa Martins was appointed COO of underwriting operations at the end of 2021 and is responsible for leading Pen’s property and liability underwriting teams, ensuring the company has the talent and tools to deliver outstanding service to its brokers and great results to its security. She recognises that people are key to the success of business and is dedicated to the growth, development and wellbeing of the company’s teams.
Over the 12 years Martins has been with Pen, she has led the analytics team and been responsible for BINDER governance and management. Martins has experience with both agencies and insurers in Australia and the UK and deep knowledge of the coverholder model across a broad range of products.
Chief Operating Officer, Underwriting Operations
Alisa Martins
Ken Keenan has over 35 years of insurance industry experience across numerous countries. He was appointed Pen chief executive in January 2018. Prior to this, he spent 10 years in Canada in a variety of roles, including CEO at Gallagher’s Canada, President at Noraxis Capital Corporation and President at Canadian Northern Shield. Earlier in his career, Keenan worked with RSA Zurich and Eagle Star in Ireland. He also spent two years with Eagle Star in the UK.
In his role with Pen, Keenan has overall responsibility for the direction and performance of the Pen business. “It is all about the people, the wonderful team members we have right across the Pen business, including those in its service centre in India, the people who work in the brokers we deal with across Australia every day who trust us to provide great solutions for their clients and finally, the incredible support we get from the executives and underwriters at the insurance companies we represent,” Keenan says.
Keenan lives in Sydney and is excited to have just been approved for his Australian citizenship.
Chief Executive
Ken Keenan
Read on
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PEN UNDERWRITING
SPECIAL REPORT
Home
Bio
“It is a priority for us to continue to tap the unmet needs of our clients and grow with them to understand how to service them properly and give them what they need in this ever-changing landscape"
Vivianne Gauci,
HomeEquity Bank
Alicia Stell
Team Manager – Transport
Chris Bounos
Underwriting Manager – Professional Risks
Barry Long
Team Manager – General Liability
Paul Behm
Underwriting Manager – Hospitality
Kerrie Coxell
Team Manager – Care Liability
Nick Best
Team Manager – Property
Lenu Lukose
Property Portfolio Manager
Alisa Martins
Chief Operating Officer, Underwriting Operations
Ken Keenan
Chief Executive
Leadership
LinkedIn:
au.linkedin.com/company/pen-underwriting---Australia
Website:
penunderwriting.com.au
Email:
info.au@penunderwriting.com
Phone:
02 9323 5000
Number of employees:
60
Year founded:
2013
Headquarters:
Sydney, NSW
Read on
PEN UNDERWRITING
Award Winner
Alicia Stell joined Pen as transport team manager in 2022 and is responsible for leading the fantastic team of transport underwriters.
Stell has over 20 years of experience in motor fleet underwriting and has held senior underwriting roles with extensive underwriting authority. Most recently, she was with National Transport Insurance, and prior to this, she was with Zurich. Stell brings vast underwriting knowledge and experience to Pen, along with deep market knowledge. Pen Underwriting has a well-established transportation portfolio that focuses on small to mid-sized fleets for heavy motor and commercial motor.
Team Manager – Transport
Alicia Stell
Chris Bounos is the professional risks underwriting manager at Pen. He has been with the company since 2016. Bounos has been underwriting PI for 16 years, having worked at Dual, Allianz and Quanta.
The professional risks team specialises in excess loss, professional indemnity and cyber. The PI focus is mostly on the construction and engineering sectors for medium-sized and smaller corporate accounts, as well as lawyers and other miscellaneous professions. The company’s cyber facility has a very broad appetite and can accommodate risks up to $450m in turnover.
The professional risks team prides itself on service, technical knowledge and a solution-driven attitude for their broking partners.
Underwriting Manager – Professional Risks
Chris Bounos
Barry Long joined Pen in May 2021 and was appointed team manager at the end of 2021. He leads a team of highly experienced liability underwriters across the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane offices and is dedicated to providing outstanding service and technical expertise to the company’s brokers. Long and his team collaborate with brokers to develop innovative products and risk solutions across a wide range of liability classes, both primary and excess. The company’s broad appetite and superior capacity enable it to tailor its coverage to meet its clients’ needs.
Long began his insurance career after university, first in broking and then in underwriting financial lines. He moved into casualty underwriting in 2011, where he has underwritten and managed portfolios of complex corporate, energy, mining and construction risks, most recently at Zurich.
Team Manager – General Liability
Barry Long
Paul Behm joined Pen in 2017 as hospitality underwriting manager.
Behm is a career insurance industry professional with 25 years of experience covering underwriting, business development, relationship management, broking and portfolio management.
For the last 13 years, Behm has been focused on the delivery of products to the hospitality sector and has built significant relationships across this industry group.
Behm has a passion for service that is translated into speed to market and deep knowledge of Pen’s products and how they relate to the hospitality industry.
Underwriting Manager – Hospitality
Paul Behm
Kerrie Coxell joined Pen in February 2018, initially as an underwriter in the care team, and was appointed team manager in 2021. Prior to joining Pen, Coxell was an insurance broker for more than 25 years with experience servicing aged and disability care clients and as a loss adjuster for three years.
The Pen Care liability team offers bespoke combined liability (GL/PI malpractice and ML) products to the aged care and retirement village sectors and disability and home and community care providers. The team of four full-time underwriters pride themselves on their superior knowledge and insight into these sectors. They are passionate about assisting brokers and their clients to manage the risks associated with being service providers.
Coxell loves to engage and work with brokers to understand their clients’ needs, providing first-class service, knowledge and support that continues into the claims process.
Coxell spends her time living between the sunny Gold Coast and the thriving metropolis of Sydney – living her best life.
Team Manager – Care Liability
Kerrie Coxell
Nick Best started with Pen in March 2022 as the property team manager, working with underwriting teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Prior to joining Pen, Best was a branch manager and broker at Insurance House. He also held a number of roles at QBE across underwriting, sales and distribution.
Best believes strongly that the insurance industry is very much a people business, and as a team, they are focusing strongly on the existing broker relationships and are continually looking to foster new relationships across Australia. The team underwrites a wide variety of occupations, including food and beverage, manufacturing, hospitality and wholesale. The team has extensive experience and the authority to make quick decisions and develop solutions with their partners.
Outside of insurance, Best is heavily involved in his local junior cricket teams despite an admission of his inability to play the sport.
Team Manager – Property
Nick Best
Lenu Lukose started with Pen in October 2021 as a property portfolio manager, working with the underwriting teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. He previously worked at One Underwriting, where he established the complex risk portfolio. Prior to that, he held underwriting roles at QBE and Calliden.
Lukose believes strongly that solution-based underwriting is the greatest catalyst for underwriting agency growth and strives to bring his team’s expertise to the market.
Outside of insurance, Lukose spends most of his time fishing or talking about fishing.
Property Portfolio Manager
Lenu Lukose
Alisa Martins was appointed COO of underwriting operations at the end of 2021 and is responsible for leading Pen’s property and liability underwriting teams, ensuring the company has the talent and tools to deliver outstanding service to its brokers and great results to its security. She recognises that people are key to the success of business and is dedicated to the growth, development and wellbeing of the company’s teams.
Over the 12 years Martins has been with Pen, she has led the analytics team and been responsible for BINDER governance and management. Martins has experience with both agencies and insurers in Australia and the UK and deep knowledge of the coverholder model across a broad range of products.
Chief Operating Officer, Underwriting Operations
Alisa Martins
Ken Keenan has over 35 years of insurance industry experience across numerous countries. He was appointed Pen chief executive in January 2018. Prior to this, he spent 10 years in Canada in a variety of roles, including CEO at Gallagher’s Canada, President at Noraxis Capital Corporation and President at Canadian Northern Shield. Earlier in his career, Keenan worked with RSA Zurich and Eagle Star in Ireland. He also spent two years with Eagle Star in the UK.
In his role with Pen, Keenan has overall responsibility for the direction and performance of the Pen business. “It is all about the people, the wonderful team members we have right across the Pen business, including those in its service centre in India, the people who work in the brokers we deal with across Australia every day who trust us to provide great solutions for their clients and finally, the incredible support we get from the executives and underwriters at the insurance companies we represent,” Keenan says.
Keenan lives in Sydney and is excited to have just been approved for his Australian citizenship.
Chief Executive
Ken Keenan
SPECIAL REPORT
Home
Bio
“Our long-term vision is to reimagine our customer and partner journeys to deliver a simple, efficient and highly pleasing experience supported by empowered teams and enabled with leading digital capabilities”
Vivianne Gauci,
HomeEquity Bank
“Our long-term vision is to reimagine our customer and partner journeys to deliver a simple, efficient and highly pleasing experience supported by empowered teams and enabled with leading digital capabilities”
Vivianne Gauci,
HomeEquity Bank
“Our long-term vision is to reimagine our customer and partner journeys to deliver a simple, efficient and highly pleasing experience supported by empowered teams and enabled with leading digital capabilities”
Vivianne Gauci,
HomeEquity Bank
further enhancing learning and development for their teams
continuing steady growth: they doubled the business in five years and aim to double it again over the next five years
maximising the usage and potential of their data and analytical tools, including catastrophe modelling and benchmarking their segmentation results against industry
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Property
Product Liability
Hospitality
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