Welcome to Oscar Shub and Dana Beiglari
The Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee (the IBCCC) welcomes its new Chair Oscar Shub and new Consumer Representative Dana Beiglari. Both appointments become effective 1 January 2022.
Oscar Shub is a part-time consultant with law firm Clyde & Co. He is also a Senior Member of the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) in the Occupational Division, presiding over disciplinary complaints against health practitioners for breaches of their respective codes of conduct. Prior to the establishment of NCAT, he performed the same role as chairman of the Health Practitioners Council of Australia.
While still in a full-time partnership at the law firm Allens Arthur Robinson (now named Allens), he was appointed as Chairman of the Appeals Division of the Pharmaceutical Associations Compliance Committee, dealing with complaints against pharmaceutical companies for breaches of their code of conduct.
For a number of years, Oscar also sat as a member of the former Superannuation Complaints Commission, hearing disputes between members of superannuation funds and fund managers.
He is an experienced and accredited mediator. From 1979, Oscar was involved in the setting up, development and teaching of mediation in Australia and has since participated in mediations both as mediator and acting on behalf of clients.
Dana Beiglari is a Senior Solicitor in the Consumer Law practice group at Legal Aid NSW. She helps the most vulnerable people in New South Wales access their consumer protection rights in credit, insurance and general consumer protection matters.
Dana currently represents Legal Aid NSW on several forums, including the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission’s Consumer Advisory Panels.
She has provided a consumer advocate perspective at a number of public inquiries, including the Financial Services Royal Commission and the Senate Inquiry into Resolution of Disputes with Financial Service Providers within the Justice System.
She was recently appointed to AFCA’s panel of experts to help make decisions about complex complaints.
Dana started her career as a lawyer at the commercial law firm Allens and has also worked at community legal centres. She is passionate about building a financial system that is accessible, affordable and useful for Australian consumers.
Farewell to Michael Gill and Julia Davis
The IBCCC is also bidding farewell to the outgoing Chair Michael Gill and outgoing Consumer Representative Julia Davis. Both members have served for the maximum tenure of three terms since the IBCCC’s inception in January 2014.
Michael Gill is recognised as one of the leading lawyers in the insurance broking field. For many years he was the principal lawyer for the National Insurance Brokers Association (NIBA) and was instrumental in drafting the original Insurance Brokers Code of Practice. He was key to the creation of the IBCCC itself and, over the past eight years, has led its strategic and operational development, his main focus being culture as the key to compliance and good industry practice.
Julia Davis is an admitted solicitor in NSW and is the Policy and Communications Officer at the Financial Rights Legal Centre in NSW, a community legal centre that specialises in helping consumers understand and enforce their legal rights. She is passionate about helping disadvantaged consumers and contributed greatly to work undertaken by the IBCCC in that area.
IBCCC welcomes new managers
We are also delighted to inform you of some important changes to the Code Team at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), which provides secretarial services to five code compliance committees, including the IBCCC.
Prue Monument has commenced her role as the General Manager of Code Compliance and Monitoring while Rene van de Rijdt will start in a new role as Deputy General Manager. Together Prue and Rene will lead the work of Code as we embark on the next chapter in its development.
Prue Monument worked at the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) where she was the Executive Director Quality Assurance and Regulatory Operations. In this role she was responsible for all TEQSA’s regulatory work, compliance monitoring, investigations, risk analysis and enforcement, as well as overseeing Australian Higher Education providers’ compliance with quality and governance standards and the National Code of Practice.
Prue has also been Director of Compliance at the Australian Charities and not-for-profits Commission, where she was responsible for all compliance, investigations, and intelligence work across Australia’s 56,000 charities.
Prue has also held senior roles in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, including national manager of the Allegations Assessment Team, and postings in Beirut and Shanghai.
Rene van de Rijdt takes on a new role as Deputy General Manager, which recognises the tremendous role that he played as Acting General Manager following Sally Davis’s departure in March 2021 and ensures he has a greatly enhanced role in leading the team and its work moving forward.
Daniela Kirchlinde will continue in her role as Code Compliance and Operations Manager overseeing the compliance monitoring work undertaken on behalf of the IBCCC.