Growing up on a farm in Western Australia, Amanda Whiting recalls frequent conversations about the weather. “Almost every day, my father would tap at the barometer to try and work out whether it was going to rain, or how hot it was going to be,” she recalls. 

“At some point in my childhood, I remember thinking, ‘Well, I never want to be a farmer and I don’t want to work in any job where I have to be worried about the weather. Of course, I ended up working in insurance, so weather is something I think about every day.”

Mitigating the risks of climate change is high on the agenda for Whiting, Chief Executive of IAG New Zealand, which consists of AMI, State, and NZI.

Whiting has been awarded ANZIIF’s 2023 Insurance Leader of the Year and says it’s vital that the insurance industry continue to lobby New Zealand’s incoming government to ensure climate change remains a key area of focus.

“Climate change is having a profound impact on the country and presents huge risks for the insurance industry,” says Whiting. “We’ve done a lot of great work in keeping mitigation on the agenda, and we need to continue this work with the new government.”

A world of experience

Whiting has worked in insurance for more than two decades and has held senior positions in both general and health insurance, as well as telecommunications.

She joined IAG in Sydney in 2008 and was appointed Chief Executive of the New Zealand business in July 2021.

“I started my career in a health insurance business, which branched into selling general insurance, and it wasn’t until I started to sell it that I realised the benefits it brought to people in terms of taking on risks for them,” says Whiting.

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