AIDA plans new initiatives

By Chris Rodd, AIDA Presidential Council Representative – Australia

The conference edition of Resolve primarily focused on the AIDA World Congress (WICA 2023) in Melbourne in late August.

The event was an enormous and unqualified success primarily due to what was widely acknowledged as an exceptional program with highly informed and experienced speakers from around the world.

The congress adopted a different format to what we normally see at an AIDA World Insurance Congress in that it was highly interactive with presentations from panels of experts, each chaired by a session leader.

In the past, presentations largely involved an individual speaker addressing a specific topic for 30 minutes or more. This year’s congress adopted the very successful format we used in Singapore at the Asia Pacific Insurance Congress in 2017.

New executives

Planning will soon start for the next AIDA World Insurance Congress, likely to be in Hamburg, Germany, in 2027.

WICA2023 saw the appointment of a new AIDA president to replace the retiring president Peggy Sharon from Israel. Peggy was appointed in Rio in 2018 for a four-year term which was extended to five years due to the pandemic and the adjournment of the Melbourne congress. The incoming AIDA president, who will serve until Hamburg, is Carlos Estebenet from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Carlos is a long-standing member of the Presidential Council and will bring a wealth of experience with the South American organisation, CILA, to his presidency.

Carlos will be assisted in his new role by a newly appointed executive of Jonathan Scragg, from New Zealand, as treasurer, five vice presidents, Yves Hayaux du Tilly Laborde, from Mexico, Prof Kyriaki Noussia, from the UK, Sergio Barrosso de Mello, from Brazil, Alkistis Christifilou, from Greece, who is co-chair of AIDA Europe, and Chris Rodd, from Australia, who chairs the Dispute Resolution Working Party.

Ricardo Peralta, from Chile, is the general secretary, Israel’s Peggy Sharon is the immediate past president, and Prof Sara Landini, from Italy, chairs the Scientific Council.

Proposed initiatives

Several AIDA initiatives were discussed in Melbourne, including appointing a paid assistant to support tasks performed by the general secretary. As all AIDA Presidential Council positions are voluntary and involve a substantial time commitment, a paid administrator was unanimously viewed as an essential initiative. Because the president is based in Argentina it was agreed to appoint a person there to fill the role.

Proposals to advance AIDA’s activities and, in particular, those of the working parties were to be discussed at a meeting in late November and I hope to share those with readers in the next edition of Resolve.

AIDA views AILA and NZILA as essential chapters in the global association and pivotal in coordinating the activities of Asian regional chapters. WICA2023 was a clear demonstration of the importance of AILA to the key functions of AIDA.

Having agreed to serve with new president Carlos until the next AIDA World Insurance Congress in 2027, I look forward to supporting regional initiatives we hope to implement in the coming years.