New In The Job - Insurance Law

…in Business Law

What’s the appointment? Katherine Simmonds has joined Ironshore Australia as executive director to the Board.

What’s the job she is leaving? Katherine will be leaving a position as practice leader of mergers and acquisitions at Chartis, an insurance firm.

What exactly does your new role require you to do?As Katherine will be on the Board of directors for Ironshore Australia, she will be responsible for launching mergers and acquisition insurance as a product for Ironshore Australia within Australia itself, New Zealand and into Asia. “I’ll also be responsible for building business operations, building on the brand, and building the Ironshore business into these regions of the world, along with David Rogers, managing director of Ironshore Australia, but different to Mr Rogers I’ll initially be in charge of mergers and acquisitions.

So what got her interested in the role? Ironshore is currently at an exciting point in its evolution as a business. The new company commenced around five years ago, and has been growing at a steady pace internationally “despite what can only be described as discord economic conditions for any business globally.” From the company chairman down, they aim to create innovative solutions that meet the clients’ needs. “The company is nimble and young enough to do this in a way that its larger ‘old school’ competitors cannot.

Where has she worked previously? Katherine used to be part of a private equity team at Minter Ellison based in Sydney, one of the top legal teams in the country. “Before that I was in management consulting at PA Consulting in Sydney, Melbourne and in London.”

So how did she move from her previous roles into business law? She was always interested in law since high school and wanted to fine-tune her legal skills by working for a good law firm, but she’s also interested in entrepreneurial aspects of law, young companies and business generally. “That’s what attracted me to the private equity aspect of the industry. The role at Chartis and even more so the role at Ironshore allows me to use that broad set of business skills acquired through consulting, along with the legal analysis acquired through my previous legal and private equity experience.” Katherine began her experience in law doing vacation work for a small law firm when she was 14 years old.

What qualifications has she attained? Along with a Commerce Degree, Katherine has attained a Diploma in Languages while spending time living in Europe, developing a fluent tongue for the French language. “I attained my Diploma in Languages due to pure enjoyment but it can obviously become quite handy in the international industry.”

Your new role is based in Australia, but you consider yourself a Kiwi? “Yes I was born in Auckland even though I have Australian parents.” She sports a New Zealand passport, which she currently uses on her international travels.

“I’m looking forward to making my way over to New Zealand in the first quarter of this year to further build on the Ironshore brand and meet with key players in the M&A market in the country.