Australian Life Insurance

About our people

ALI Group is managed by individuals who have considerable experience in the financial services industry with extensive expertise in insurance and its distribution in lending environments.

Short biographies on our key people are set out below.

Huy Truong - Chairman & CEO

Huy has a diverse business and financial services background beginning his professional career at the Boston Consulting Group and then JP Morgan. In 1999 Huy became the founding CEO of Wishlist Holdings, an e-commerce company that he still Chairs today. Huy then became the Chief Executive of a $200m paper business within Carter Holt Harvey that was sold as part of a broader $850m transaction. After that, Huy became CEO of Jurlique International, a health and beauty company with operations in Australia, US and Asia. Prior to co-founding Yarra Capital Partners, Huy was a Venture Partner with CHAMP Ventures, a leading Sydney based mid market PE fund manager. Huy has been involved with a number of community organizations including on the board of Asialink and the Leadership Council of White Lion. Huy has an Economics Honours Degree from Monash University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Huy is married with 3 children.

Alan Schwartz - Non Executive Director

Over the past 25 years Alan has created, built, managed and sold a number of successful publishing, software and services businesses. He is once again in the "create" part of the entrepreneurial cycle, looking for new opportunities to create value for customers, employees and shareholders. He has held a number of senior Board positions with Not-for-profit organisations. Alan is a graduate of Monash University with degrees in Law (Honours) and Economics. He is the author of an Economics textbook – published whilst he was a University student. Alan is a graduate of the Williamson Community Leadership program. He was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003, and an Order of Australia (AM) in 2007 for his work at Jewish Care Inc., for establishing SEAL Force, and for business. Alan is married with 4 children.

Bruce Edwards - Non Executive Director

Bruce is an actuary with considerable life insurance experience. He has a BSc (University of Queensland) and an MA (Macquarie University) and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia. He established an actuarial consulting practice in 1984 which later became KPMG Actuaries. Bruce was Managing Director of the firm until he retired in 2001.
In recent years, Bruce has been an independent director of several life insurance companies, superannuation funds and life insurance distribution companies. He is currently a director of the superannuation fund trustee of the Russell Investment Group, Treasurer of Volunteering Australia and a visiting lecturer at Macquarie University.

Darren Smith - Head of Sales & Distribution

Darren has over 20 years experience in the financial services industry, holding senior finance, strategy and distribution roles with CGU Lenders Mortgage Insurance, Aviva (Australia and UK) and more recently MLC (after its acquisition of Aviva). Darren is a member of the CPA Australia, a Fellow of the Australian & New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and holds a Masters of Business Administration.

Robert King – Head of Corporate Marketing & Projects

Over the past 25 years Rob has held senior roles with a number of organisations in the UK and Australia within the retail financial services market, including HSBC, Citibank and Rothschild. He has acquired extensive experience in banking, asset finance, retail financial services and wealth management, primarily in the areas of sales, marketing & communications, distribution and product management. Rob has a Mathematics & Physics Honours degree from the University of London and an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management.

Dan Ward - Chief Financial / Operations Officer

Dan has many years finanical services experience gained in senior finance roles primarily at Westpac & BT Financial Group.

Malcolm McCool - Head of Strategy, Legal & HR

Since 2002, Malcolm has been Company Secretary and Head of Legal and Compliance for Australian Life Insurance. He previously held various senior legal roles at Westpac Banking Corporation and Citibank specialising in financial services and insurance. Malcolm led Westpac’s response to the new regulatory environment in which ALI also operates and had significant involvement with ASIC, Treasury and various Industry bodies during the development of the legislation.

Tasso Papachatgis - Strategic Adviser

Before joining ALI, Tasso worked with Macquarie Mortgages as head of broker sales and then as head of Macquarie Mortgages. He has held senior sales and distribution positions with Woolworths, Coca-Cola and Berri - where he was managing director of commercial sales and distribution.