Kate Tilley is passing the baton after more than three decades in insurance media.

The founder of Brisbane-based Kate Tilley Journalism, who counts the Australian Insurance Law Association among her large industry client base, is “stepping back” but will be available as a consultant to the business’ new owner.

“Insurance is in my blood after writing about it for so long,” Ms Tilley tells insuranceNEWS.com.au. “I have made a wealth of friends and contacts in the insurance industry and have thoroughly enjoyed playing a role in helping clients grow by managing their communications requirements.”

Ms Tilley completed a journalism cadetship at Tasmania’s The Mercury in the late 1970s before moving to work on newspapers in Rockhampton and then Brisbane. US-based Business Insurance magazine asked her to cover a Lloyd’s presentation on the Gold Coast in 1988, and she then became the magazine’s Australasian correspondent, serving for more than a decade.

“My then limited insurance knowledge came from a diagram drawn on the back of a beer coaster of how reinsurance layering worked,” Ms Tilley says.  

Attending many conferences across southeast Asia saw her undergo “intense learning about the intricacies of the insurance industry”. 

At an AILA conference more than 30 years ago she was asked to edit its publication, now called Resolve, and the association is KTJ’s longest-running client.

Ms Tilley completed her certificate in insurance in 1998, specialising in marine cover – “thinking it sounded interesting but having no idea of the complexities of it” – and says she is probably the only journalist to be an Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance senior associate.

“I was perpetually asked how I was qualified to write about insurance when I had not worked in the industry, so decided to get qualifications. The ANZIIF president remarked on how unusual it was for someone not working directly in the industry.”

KTJ clients have included the Underwriting Agencies Council and many individual agencies, the Risk Management Institute of Australasia, Xceedance, Agile Underwriting Services, Emergence Insurance, Insurance Investment Solutions, Frazer Walker, Austbrokers Comsure Insurance Brokers and ChainThat. 

Ms Tilley would “wholeheartedly steer young people towards insurance” as a career path.

“I love the industry and have seen it grow in myriad ways over the 35-plus years of KTJ’s involvement. It is a joy to see so many high-achieving women involved in what was once a male-dominated industry.”

Ms Tilley says Unicorn Content director Deb Eccleston will now manage KTJ clients.

Ms Eccleston is a journalist with more than 25 years’ experience who was previously managing editor of RACQ’s Road Ahead magazine.