Promina MD and CEO Mike Wilkins has been named the insurance industry’s “personality of the year” at last night’s Australian and New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards.

Mr Wilkins, who guided the old Royal & SunAlliance into a cohesive new Australian-owned entity, was at the head of a long and glittering list of winners at the Sydney awards night.

Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance CEO Joan Fitzpatrick says the awards “confirm yet again that the insurance industry continues to demonstrate excellence, professionalism and the highest standards of performance as it continues to serve society throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is also vitally important as an industry that we celebrate and recognise these achievements.”

Other award winners were:

• CommInsure for life insurance company of the year;
• IAG for general insurance company of the year;
• Munich Re for reinsurance company of the year;
• Aon for broker of the year;
• Pacific Premium Funding for premium funder of the year;
• GAB Robins NZ for loss adjuster of the year;
• Guild Risk Services for risk manager of the year;
• Freemans Australia for technological innovation of the year;
• PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia for service provider of the year;
• Phillips Fox for law firm of the year; and
• AMI Insurance for services to the community.

If you work in insurance and you’re on a diet, it’s not exactly a good week to be in Sydney. The event marks the start of a smorgasbord of industry awards. Tomorrow Personal Investment magazine will hold its “Awards for excellence in financial services” gala dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel; this covers everything from funds management and banking to risk insurance.

And on Thursday night it’s the turn of Australian Banking and Finance magazine, which will present 14 awards at its third annual Insurance Awards Dinner.