YP joins AILA Board

The Australian Insurance Law Association has appointed a member of its Young Professionals group to join the board as an ex officio member.

AILA National President Angus Kench said Jessica Beard, national co-convenor of AILA’s YPs, had accepted the board’s invitation.

Ms Beard is a solicitor in the Brisbane office of Quinlan Miller & Treston.

Mr Kench said AILA valued its YPs and Jessica’s appointment would enrich the association and ensure it continued to offer events and benefits of value across the entire membership, including those aged under 30.

“Many associations today stagnate because they do not encourage generations X and Y to be involved. As the baby boomers who have willingly volunteered to run AILA over its 35 years advance, with many approaching retirement, it is vital for AILA to evolve so there is always a new breed of people willing to take the organisation into the future,” Mr Kench said.

“Having Jessica on the board will ensure the younger generation’s perspective is included in our deliberations on behalf of the membership as a whole. The insurance industry’s YPs are super smart, dynamic, passionate and forward thinking. That’s exactly the kind of member we love.

“This is part of our goal to foster an innovative, proactive, member-responsive culture throughout AILA,” he said.

Ms Beard said YPs were increasingly representative of the insurance industry. “It’s important to have a YP representative on the AILA board to ensure YPs’ and new industry entrants’ ideas, initiatives and views are supported at a national board level.”

She said having a dedicated AILA YP division meant events and topics were tailored to issues relevant to furthering the knowledge and skills of the industry’s younger people.