Judging Panel
Richard Klipin
AFA
Chief Executive Officer
Richard joined the financial service industry in 1989 and advised for 5 years before joining Mercantile Mutual. For the next 9 years Richard held a number of roles including National Sales Manager and Head of Practice Management for ING Australia/Mercantile Mutual. He was a founding partner of The Encore Group, and also spent time with NAB/MLC as Region Manager for their Bank Adviser Channel.
Prior to joining the AFA, he was Head of Strategic Relationships for ING Australia. Richard holds an MBA & a BA Dip Ed from Macquarie University.
Brett Clark
TAL
Chief Executive Officer - Retail Life
Brett Clark was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Retail Life in August 2008. He has a wide range of experience in the life insurance market and has held a number of management and senior actuarial roles with firms working around the globe.
Before joining TAL, Brett was most recently Deputy Managing Director of AIG Life in Australia. He is an advocate for gender equity in the financial service profession and for tackling the under-insurance and retirement savings gap in the country.
Aranka Nolan
TAL
National Marketing Manager - Retail Life
Arankla Nolan joined TAL in April 2011. She has held senior marketing and communications positions within organisations including QBE, Royal & Sun Alliance and other roles in Citigroup and Zurich.
Aranka has completed post-graduate studies at MGSM and holds an MBA in Marketing.
Jenny Rickard
Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Associate Director, Executive Education
Currently the Acting Director of Executive Education, Jenny has worked in management education for over 15 years. Her main focus is in the development and management of key client relationships and program design/management. She has overall responsibility for the Executive Education portfolio including Open Enrolment and Custom Programs. Prior experience has been in the legal publishing profession in marketing and senior administrative roles.
She has a Postgraduate Diploma in Management and is a member of the Conference Committee for UNICON, the global consortium of business-school based executive education organisations.
Babette Bensoussan
The MindShifts Group
Managing Director
Babette Bensoussan is best known as an international specialist in strategy and competition. With an excellent breadth and depth of knowledge she has undertaken major studies for and consulted to Australian and Global Fortune 500 companies.
Babette has shared her knowledge and passion for excellence in strategy and competition by co-authoring four best selling books on business competition and analysis. She has lectured and conducted training programs both in Australia and internationally and is regularly invited to speak at forums and executive associations.
Her experience as an international specialist in Competitive Intelligence has given her an understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and executives from middle management to Board level.
In 2006, she received the 2006 Alumni Award from MGSM and from 2007 to 2009, was Program Director for the "Women in Leadership" Executive Program at Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM).
In 2012, Babette was appointed Adjunct Professor with the School of Business, University of Technology, Sydney.
Babette is a brilliant presenter, guest lecturer and communicator, and conducts training, workshops and individual mentoring on a worldwide basis in the implementation of competitive intelligence and business analysis.
As a qualified counsellor and MBTI practitioner, Babette completed certification as a business coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching in the USA. She qualified as a Master Practitioner in the Energy Leadership Index.
Babette is passionate about enabling individuals to achieve their personal and business goals, and is committed to achieving this through personal and group mentoring, coaching and training, and through writing articles and speaking opportunities.
