Event Details
Time: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM AWST
Date: 22 October 2026
Venue: Central Park Perth, 152-158 St Georges Terrace
Registration Fee: $89 Members | $159 Non-Members (incl GST)
CPD Points: 10 points
About the Event
The WA Chapter's 2026 Risk Odyssey will be held on Thursday 22 October, bringing together leading voices from across insurance for a day of insight, discussion and connections.
This year's theme, "Risk Transfer: Beyond Traditional Insurance for the Modern-Day Risk Professional," explores the evolving role of insurance within broader risk management. As organisations navigate emerging risks, changing market conditions and increasing complexity, risk professionals are being challenged to think beyond conventional approaches.
Through expert presentations and discussions, attendees will explore insurance market trends, workplace risk, climate resilience, geopolitical uncertainty and innovative approaches to risk financing.
Don't miss this opportunity to connect with peers and industry leaders, gain fresh perspectives and take away practical insights to support better risk-informed decision-making
About the Speakers
State of the Insurance Market
Laura Russo
Client Director, Global & Corporate
Aon Risk Solutions, Perth
Laura Russo is a Client Director in Aon’s Global & Corporate team in Perth, with more than 30 years of experience in insurance and risk management. She works with a diverse portfolio of corporate clients across a range of sectors, including construction, natural resources, manufacturing, food and beverage, agriculture, and healthcare.
Laura provides strategic advice on risk financing, insurance program design, and market engagement. Throughout her career, she has held senior broking, underwriting, and risk management roles in Australia, the United States, and Indonesia, and has provided consulting services across the Asia-Pacific region.
Jason Mathews
Client Director, Global & Corporate
Aon Risk Solutions, Perth
Jason Mathews has been in the insurance industry for 35 years starting his career in London as a marine broker.
On locating to Australia in 2002, Jason started his career in Australia with Zurich in which he spent 12 years with them.
In 2014 Jason then joined JLT Australia and was the General Manager of the mining division for Western Australia but also assisted on a national basis for any large specialty marine placements
Jason joined Aon in January 2023 as a Client Director.
Workers Compensation & WHS:
Emerging Trends, Claims Insights & Managing People Risk
JC van der Walt
Head of Howden WA
JC brings more than 20 years experience as an insurance specialist lawyer before moving into broking, he brings a unique legal and commercial perspective to risk management. He has defended a wide range of complex claims across workers compensation, liability, property, professional indemnity and directors and officers insurance, giving him firsthand insight into how workplace incidents, governance failures and contractual risks can escalate into significant organisational exposures.
Today, JC works with clients to strengthen risk management frameworks, navigate regulatory and contractual obligations, and better understand their due diligence responsibilities. His practical approach helps organisations identify emerging risks early and reduce legal, financial and reputational exposure before issues escalate.
Hayley Ryan
Partner, People Risk, Howden WA
Hayley is a multidisciplinary People Risk specialist with a background spanning occupational therapy, psychology and health and safety, and more than 20 years of experience across injury management, workers compensation, workplace wellbeing and psychosocial risk. Her career spans clinical and vocational rehabilitation, as well as senior in-house leadership roles in injury management, health and safety, wellbeing and psychosocial safety within complex operational environments.
This diverse background provides Hayley with a unique end-to-end perspective on people risk, from preventing workplace injuries and psychosocial harm through to managing claims, recovery and organisational risk.
At Howden, Hayley works with clients to identify and manage emerging people risks, with a particular focus on psychosocial hazards, workplace behaviours, injury prevention and claims management. By combining allied health expertise with specialist broking and legal capability, she helps organisations improve people risk outcomes, reduce workers compensation exposure and protect long term insurance performance.
Henry Morley
Senior Associate, People Risk, Howden WA
Henry has more than 20 years of experience across rehabilitation, occupational health, injury management and workforce risk. Beginning his career in sports science and exercise physiology, he developed a strong clinical foundation working across rehabilitation, chronic health, workers compensation, occupational health and workplace wellbeing.
Henry specialises in helping organisations move from reactive injury and claims management to proactive prevention strategies that strengthen workforce resilience, improve wellbeing and reduce people related risk. His experience spans return to work, psychosocial risk, workplace wellbeing and workforce performance.
At Howden, Henry combines clinical expertise with a practical risk management and insurance perspective to support organisations in creating healthier, safer and more productive workplaces.
Live Crisis Simulation by Battleground:
Integrating insurance considerations when responding to a crisis
Luke Smailes
DIRECTOR | RISK STRATEGY & TECHNOLOGY
Battleground
Luke Smailes leads Battleground’s NSW Practice, advising his clients Executives and Boards on crisis management, organisational resilience and prudential change.
Before Battleground he held senior roles at KPMG and PwC and ran his own consultancy, working with banks, insurers and superannuation funds on crisis & resilience transformation and regulatory change initiatives. He has worked inside APRA on an embedded basis and was part of the industry group consulted on CPS 230 and CPG 230, so he knows the standard from both sides of the table. Much of his current work is helping organisations, regulated or not, turn that framework into arrangements that hold up on the day they are needed – where he runs around 50 simulations per year.
Luke is a lawyer by training, admitted in Western Australia and a Perth native who was educated at Notre Dame in Fremantle before heading east.
Peter Duffy
DIRECTOR | RISK & RESILIENCE
Battleground
Peter Duffy brings 30 years of experience across risk, crisis and issues management, assurance and governance, and the practices that sit behind sound decision making in a resilient organisation.
Before joining Battleground, he led the Enterprise Risk function at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, where he rebuilt the organisation’s risk framework to lift risk maturity and support risk-aware decision making. In the same role he was responsible for business continuity and crisis management, designing the frameworks and then running them through significant live events.
At Battleground he leads the Risk and Resilience practice, working with clients to make risk management something that protects and grows business value through informing and strengthening decision making at every level.
Mark Maciolek
PRINCIPAL | RISK & RESILIENCE
Battleground
Mark Maciolek is a Certified Practising Risk Manager with more than a decade of experience helping organisations navigate uncertainty, strengthen resilience and achieve sustainable outcomes in complex, highly regulated environments.
Before joining Battleground, Mark held senior roles in consulting and in-house risk teams where he led risk and controls transformations, business continuity, crisis management and resilience initiatives. He has worked across all three lines of defence, including leading operational risk and business continuity for WA's largest general insurer.
Based in Western Australia, he is committed to advancing the risk profession and currently serves as Vice President of the Risk Management Institute of Australasia (WA). He is also a Non-Executive Director of Mandurah Performing Arts Centre Inc, where he contributes to supporting arts, culture and community development.
Below the Waterline:
The Real Cost of Risk in a Fragmenting World
Nicholas Martin
Head of Risk Intelligence
Aviso Specialty
Nicholas Martin is Head of Risk Intelligence and Strategic Advisor at Aviso Specialty, where he is building a specialist risk consulting practice on a lean, AI-augmented risk intelligence model. Formerly Head of Risk Consulting, Pacific at Marsh, he brings 25 years across defence, corporate, and consulting roles at Telstra, Macquarie Bank, and AGL Energy. Nicholas began his career as a Royal Australian Navy Clearance Diver — a background that continues to shape his approach to risk and resilience.
The Road to a Captive:
Using Analytics to Know When You’re Ready
Jessica So
Head of Analytics Solutions
Marsh Risk, Asia and Pacific
Jessica So is the Asia Pacific Leader of Risk Analytics Solutions at Marsh, where she leads a team providing analytics-driven advice on risk retention, transfer, and insurance financing strategies. An Associate Actuary of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (UK), Jessica brings more than 25 years of experience in insurance analytics, actuarial modelling, and risk financing across a broad range of insurable risks, including property, liability, cyber, and marine.
Throughout her career, Jessica has led projects spanning quantitative risk modelling, cost of risk analysis, captive and alternative risk transfer feasibility studies, actuarial loss reserving, and programme design. Prior to joining Marsh, she led Aon's Actuarial and Analytics team in Asia and served as signing actuary for captives in Bermuda, Micronesia, and Singapore. Her earlier experience in the reinsurance sector in London and Hong Kong provided deep expertise in reinsurance strategy, catastrophe modelling, pricing, reserving, and treaty analysis, making her a highly respected adviser in risk and insurance analytics.