Millennium MD Heath Amber has become Chairman of the Underwriting Agencies Council, while Kurt Nilsen and Peter Marshall have joined the board.

Mr Amber replaces John Iles, who has competed his two-year term as chairman.

Lyndon Turner and Peter Fryer were re-elected to the board at last week’s AGM in Sydney.

Mr Nilsen joined the insurance industry in South Africa before moving to Australia, where he established an underwriting agency as a liability coverholder for Lloyd’s. He is now National Marketing & Business Development Manager at SUA in Brisbane.

Mr Marshall has been with Insurance House subsidiary ProRisk for five years, focusing on business and product development.

Mr Iles told the AGM that council membership has increased to 77 full members and 27 business service members in the past year. It also has five New Zealand members following a roadshow conducted there.

The council will launch a more interactive website next year. The current site’s popularity peaked in October, with 2000 broker searches.

“The new site will streamline brokers’ searches, delivering quote requests via email straight to agencies that can write the risk,” Mr Iles said.