David Brawn, the man whose vision brought Sunrise Exchange to the insurance industry, will retire from Telstra at the end of the month. Mr Brawn, who is CEO of Telstra eBusiness Services, has spent 21 years with Telstra and its predecessor company, OTC.

Announcing Mr Brawn’s decision last week, Stuart Korchinski, MD of Telstra subsidiary KAZ Business Services, said Mr Brawn’s vision and leadership has built a leading role for Telstra in the electronic payment and trading markets.

Mr Brawn has held a variety of senior positions in the areas of marketing, strategy, business development and business management across Telstra.

He became involved with the insurance industry in 2000 when Telstra purchased Insurance Network Services (INS) from five insurers. Mr Brawn handled the negotiations and was then appointed CEO and given the task of developing the new InsNet into a state-of-the-art provider of ecommerce solutions.

The multi-million dollar project, given the name Sunrise Exchange, required constant communication with the other stakeholders – particularly insurers, brokers and broking system vendors – throughout the complex development period. Sunrise® Exchange is today the insurance industry’s leading web-based transaction service provider, with an array of online services that is constantly being added to. It has won several industry awards for innovation.

Sunrise Exchange is under the day-to-day control of General Manager Lisa Woodley, and continues to be a major focus area for Telstra. Mr Korchinski said yesterday Telstra remains “very committed” to Sunrise Exchange, and the high standards of service achieved under Mr Brawn.

Last year Mr Brawn was appointed CEO of Telstra eBusiness Services to establish leadership positions for Telstra in the electronic payment and trading markets. Telstra eBusiness Services now forms part of KAZ Business Services, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra and is Australia’s largest locally owned information and communication technology services company.

Mr Korchinski is no stranger to the insurance industry, having spent 11 years in the finance and insurance sector. Prior to joining KAZ he was Chief General Manager of Allianz Australia’s direct, financial institution and affinity sourced personal insurance business.