In 2005, Kimberley Jonsson became disillusioned with life as a university student and dropped out. 

She still kept her casual job at Target, where she had worked after school and on weekends since 2000, while she mulled over her next move.

‘Then Target stopped giving me hours, so I thought I better go and get a real job, in an office,’ she says. ‘I applied for about 27 positions in one day and CHU called me within hours of applying. 

‘I had an interview the next day and was then hired as a trainee customer service officer. It all happened very quickly.’

Jonsson sorted the mail and answered the phones at CHU, which is part of the Steadfast Group and specialises in providing comprehensive insurance for strata properties. She found it far more pleasant than retail. 

In her first year, she began to underwrite residential strata and in her second, commercial strata.

Three years passed. The ambitious young Jonsson believed her career had hit a rut. She resigned and joined MGA Insurance Brokers, where she had an eight-month stint.

‘I’d wanted to be a business development manager [BDM],’ she says. ‘CHU didn’t even have one in Adelaide, but I just wanted to be one. 

At the time, the BDM was the state manager. When that state manager moved overseas, my old boss at CHU called me up and asked me to come back.’

SCALING THE LADDER

By 2011, Jonsson was transitioning into the role of state manager. The process took longer than expected, and it wasn’t until 2014 that she assumed her new responsibilities. By this time, she had a diploma through ANZIIF as well as an MBA and she felt ‘over ready’ for the role.

That’s why, just three months into the new position, she put her hand up to move to the much bigger market of Queensland. She had never lived outside Adelaide before and left her family and friends behind, with her partner promising to follow her soon afterwards.

‘At the end of my first day, I went home and still felt nauseous after weeks of anticipation of starting my new role. I couldn’t understand it.

Then I looked at myself in the mirror, and I thought, “Oh my god”. I knew I was pregnant.’

Jonsson had a baby and returned to work less than a year later, taking on the responsibility for CHU’s new market of the Northern Territory in addition to Queensland.

‘It was kind of like going to work in a different country, because the brokers didn’t know me or anything about my company,’ she recalls. ‘It was totally different from the presence we have in Sydney, for example.’

LIFE-CHANGING MOMENT

In March 2018, Jonsson moved to Sydney, part of CHU’s biggest market — at the time, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory had a premium income of A$120 million.

When CHU’s former CEO, Bobby Lehane, phoned Jonsson in September last year, she had no idea that the phone call would change her life.

‘I asked him how his board meeting went, and he said: “Oh good, good. I’ve resigned. I’ve got a lot of phone calls to make, but if you want to be the CEO, you should reach out to one of the board members.”’

Jonsson was devastated by the news that Lehane was leaving. ‘He was my mentor and I learnt something from him every day. I spent the next 24 hours feeling gutted. 

Bobby phoned me the next day and asked me if I’d contacted a board member to discuss becoming the CEO. I was like, “Are you serious? Is this really happening?”’

Jonsson found out that she would be the next CEO of CHU during a group Zoom call with Robert Kelly, Steadfast’s CEO.

‘I just could not believe it; I was pinching myself,’ she says. ‘It was never in my five-year plan to be the CEO of CHU, because I started working here when I was basically a kid. I just didn’t think it would ever happen. 

‘My appointment is a tribute to Steadfast’s commitment to having a diverse and inclusive workforce.’

NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY

Jonsson took up her new role in December 2020 and says she wants to encourage a heightened focus on relationships.

‘Something I’ve always liked about CHU is our relationships with customers. There are some really deep relationships that go back to when CHU started. But you don’t want to trade off the length of those relationships and say, “Oh, we’ve known each other forever” — you want to keep earning it.’

Part of this will involve removing some of the manual aspects of strata insurance to enhance the customer experience.

‘I’ve always felt really strongly that even though we’re the biggest strata insurer, we also do it better than any of our competitors,’ she says. 

‘I want to bring a focus on the intermediaries so that every customer’s experience with us is a positive one. I want it to be effortless to deal with us.’

To this end, she has been excited by the introduction of commercial strata onto CHU’s StrataTech platform for brokers. 

‘It is the first time that brokers have been able to quote commercial strata online and it has been extremely popular since it was introduced.’

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