Former IAG CEO Mike Wilkins has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

His award was for distinguished services to the insurance industry, particularly for his work in helping to improve corporate social responsibility standards and building natural disaster resilience and safer communities.

Mr Wilkins united and floated the Australian general insurance assets of UK-based Royal & SunAlliance in 2003, selling the company to Suncorp three years later for $7.8 billion.

He was CEO of IAG from 2008-2015, a period in which the group’s performance improved and its shareholder relationships became less volatile. He was also a director of the Insurance Council of Australia in 1999-2011, and was president from 2003-2004.

icare director Elizabeth Carr has been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), and former Insurance Ombudsman Service director Fiona Guthrie, who is also CEO of Financial Counselling Australia, also became an AM.