Insurtech Australia has named founding member Rita Yates as CEO, the first woman to hold the role since the organisation was established in 2017.

She takes over from Simon O’Dell, who becomes Chairman.

Ms Yates says her experience, including at Allianz Australia and fintech hub Stone & Chalk, are an asset as she looks to build on the insurance start-up community’s progress.

“Those are probably two aspects of my background that will really help me moving forward,” she told insuranceNEWS.com.au. “Our mission at Insurtech Australia is really to create a world-leading insurtech ecosystem.”

On being the group’s first woman CEO, she said: “I feel very honoured, obviously, to represent this incredible ecosystem. We have some wonderful female founders locally in the insurtech space, but of course we would like to see more and see more role models.”

Ms Yates is presently Advisory Committee Member Start-ups for Cebit Australia, which runs the region’s biggest technology fair. Before that she was head of corporate partner experience and insurtech lead with Stone & Chalk.

She worked for more than four years at Allianz Australia, until October 2007, with spells as national account manager and in injury management advisory.