After more than three decades in insurance, 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Chris Mackinnon remains focused on what comes next: listening, building, developing people and embracing change.

By Anna Lopata – ANZIIF senior writer

When Chris Mackinnon walked onto the stage to receive his 2026 ANZIIF Lifetime Achievement Award, something unusual happened: a man accustomed to speaking in front of an audience found himself struggling for words.

“I was completely overwhelmed,” he says. “It wasn’t something I was expecting at all. I’ve been in this industry a long time, but I’ve just been doing what I love. To be recognised for that is quite extraordinary.”

The recognition caps more than three decades in an industry that has taken Mackinnon from Sydney to London and Singapore and into senior roles with organisations including Aon, Marsh, Gallagher, Gow-Gates, Lloyd’s and, most recently, Munich Re.

But “caps” may be the wrong word. Mackinnon is not looking back from the finish line. He is building again.

Insurance in the blood

Mackinnon jokes that his career choice may have been a “genetic disposition”. Five generations of his family have worked in insurance, and his children have followed the family tradition.

Yet his enthusiasm for the profession has little to do with tradition for tradition’s sake.

“There’s a reason my family has stayed in insurance for generations,” he says. “It gives you an incredible opportunity to contribute to society, meet so many different people and see a great deal of the world.”

It is a message he is keen for younger professionals to hear.

“I’ve seen a lot through working in this industry, and I’d encourage others to consider it. There are so many different things you can do and so many ways you can be involved.”

That breadth has characterised Mackinnon’s own career, spanning broking, underwriting and market leadership as well as extensive work with the professional bodies that help shape the industry.

He has held leadership roles with the NIBA NSW Divisional Committee, served as a Non-Executive Director of the Insurance Council of Australia and spent more than nine years as an Associate Director of the Underwriting Agencies Council.

For Mackinnon, however, leadership increasingly means knowing when not to provide all the answers.

Listening to what comes next

After decades in senior positions, Mackinnon reached a conclusion that runs counter to the traditional idea of experience conferring authority.

“I think leadership is about listening as much as acting,” he says. “The pace of change in the world is so much faster now.

“Those of us who are the senior people in the industry need to stop and listen to the next generation coming through, rather than simply telling them how we used to do things.”

Why?

“Because I think they know more about what the future is holding than we do.”

It is not a throwaway compliment to younger colleagues. Mackinnon sees intergenerational exchange as essential to keeping insurance relevant.

“Talking to people of my children’s generation about how they see things and how they can help us develop our businesses is what excites me.”

It also explains why mentoring has featured so prominently throughout his career. Mackinnon has supported emerging professionals through the NIBA Mentoring Program and Lloyd’s Advance Program and shared his experience as a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney.

When competitors became collaborators

Asked to nominate the achievements that mean most to him, MacKinnon does not start with a commercial result.

He chooses the Dive In Festival.

As inaugural Chair of Australia’s Dive In Festival, Mackinnon helped establish an initiative that brought insurers, brokers and underwriting agencies together to advance conversations about diversity, inclusion and workplace culture.

“The opportunity to bring Dive In to Australia really stands out for me,” he says. “It came at a time when there was so much need for change in that space, and I had no idea it would gain the traction it did.”

What stayed with him was the way the industry responded.

“For once, the whole industry stopped trying to compete and came together for a common purpose. We had competitors co-hosting events rather than trying to steal each other’s business.”

For Mackinnon, that experience demonstrated what insurance can achieve when its collective influence is directed beyond immediate commercial interests.

“It showed me the unity this industry can bring to issues that really matter and that it can go beyond the day-to-day. I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved with Dive In.”

A market transformed

His years at Lloyd’s Australia provide another source of pride.

Mackinnon led the business through significant change, including regulatory reform, the Hayne Royal Commission and the business interruption test cases that followed the COVID-19 pandemic.

But when he describes that period, his focus quickly shifts from the challenges to the people who navigated them.

“We went through a lot of regulatory reform with a very small team, and collectively we came through some extraordinary periods for the industry.”

What made the difference, he says, was the character of the market.

“It was because of the people and the entrepreneurial spirit of the agencies we have in this country. It was an incredible time to be involved with Lloyd’s and a real privilege to spend such a significant part of my career there.”

That willingness to evolve has been a recurring theme throughout MacKinnon’s career. He has argued that risks such as climate change and pandemics require stronger horizon scanning, new talent and a willingness to challenge established ways of working.

It is perhaps fitting, then, that a Lifetime Achievement Award has arrived just as he has embarked on something new.

The adrenaline of starting again

MacKinnon recently joined Munich Re Specialty in Australia to help establish a primary insurance business.

For someone receiving an award that naturally invites reflection, his excitement is unmistakably directed forward.

“Building things is what I love to do,” he says. “It’s what I did at Lloyd’s, and I’ve had opportunities to do it in other businesses throughout my career.”

Starting again brings him back to one of the things he has enjoyed most: assembling people around an idea and seeing what they can create together.

“To have the opportunity to recruit good people, try to bring something a little different to the market and build something for the next generation. it’s got my adrenaline pumping.”

For MacKinnon, the award is deeply meaningful. But it does not sound remotely like a full stop.

“A huge thank you to ANZIIF for this recognition,” he says. “It means a lot to me.”

And then, characteristically, he is already looking towards whatever comes next.