New IBNA Chairman Trevor Lofts says greater communication with members will be a hallmark of his reign as head of the broking cluster.

Board members voted unanimously last week for Mr Lofts to become IBNA’s new chairman ahead of challenger and long-time board member Gary Gribbin.

Mr Lofts takes over from Graham Watman, who was ousted by a recent shareholder vote.

Mr Lofts, a director of AIIB Insurance Brokers in Parramatta, says his focus will be on improving communication with members and locking down the Austbrokers & IBNA Member Services joint venture with Austbrokers.

He has also flagged a diminished role for IBNA as business is channeled into the joint venture.

“The joint venture has at least a five-year term and during that time IBNA won’t have the responsibilities it used to have,” he told Sunrise Exchange News. “It may stay that way well into the future. In the next five years we are going to have a substantially scaled-down responsibility.”

While a committee has been established to map IBNA’s future direction, Mr Lofts says the board will be adopting a “wait and see” approach.

“There has been a very strong feeling conveyed to the board that our members want to continue with our conference program and to maintain our regional conference program,” he said.