Damien Honan - CEO Honan Insurance Group Pty Ltd has been elected Chairman of the Worldwide Brokers Network (WBN) globally.  At the 20^th Anniversary meeting of the WBN held in London from 29^th April 2009, Damien was appointed unanimously.  This is a great honour for Damien and the Honan Group and his tenure as WBN Chairman will be for an 18 month period.

The WBN is the world‘s largest organization of privately held insurance brokers. Partner firms are represented in Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, North and South America.  The WBN turns over in excess of A$38 billion in premiums and it is regarded as the fourth largest insurance broking network in the world.

The WBN has been operating for 20 years this April and except for the current chairman, Damien is the only other Non European person to be given this honour.  In part, it signals for the WBN a changing of the guard where every other previous WBN chairman has been over the age of 60 and at age 46, it is a sign of the WBN sending a youthful message to the world. It also recognises the respect that all the WBN members have for Damien Honan as an individual, secondly as a leader, and finally for the firm he heads, Honan Group.

The WBN was looking for a new member in Australia in 2001 and over the next 12 months the WBN interviewed several Australian insurance brokers.  Honans were invited to present to the WBN Executive in London in 2001 where they were endorsed as the exclusive Australian Representative of WBN.  Damien Honan was invited onto the Owners Committee in 2002 and a few years later, Damien was asked to join the Executive Committee where he was given a new role, of Chairman of WBN Asia Pacific region.  The year before last, Damien was voted in as Vice Chair, Chairman Elect, of WBN Globally.

During his tenure as WBN Chairman, the Spring WBN global conference will be held in Melbourne in October 2009.  More than 200 specialist insurance brokers from all around the world will converge in Melbourne in the last week of October and plan how they do business together and look to develop new business opportunities globally