Christopher McAuliffe, a property loss adjuster at Cerno in Sydney, has won this year’s Australasian Institute of Chartered Loss Adjusters (AICLA) Carey Bird Scholarship.

Mr McAuliffe is originally from Ireland and spent four years with Outsource Services Group in Dublin before joining Cerno a year ago.

His prize, to be presented at the Claims Convention in Sydney next week, includes attendance at the Asian Claims Convention in Hong Kong in March.

Entrants submitted essays of 1500-3000 words based on a scenario involving “a heavy vehicle impact to a shop in a multi-complex shopping centre”.

AICLA CEO Tony Libke told insuranceNEWS.com.au the quality of entries was high and the competition “extremely close”.

The award was launched last year in memory of former Marsh employee and AICLA member Carey Bird, who died in the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes.