Insurance Business Hot List 2022: What does it take to be an award-winning broker?

Insurance Business Australia recently released its Hot List 2022, featuring 50 stand-out insurance professionals who showed commitment to building a sustainable and relevant future for the industry. The list features Scott Winton Insurance CEO, Avi Tatarka, whose excellence has earned him various awards throughout his career.

In Insurance Business Australia alone, Tatarka was included in Elite Brokers 2013, 2014, and 2019; Young Guns 2014; and Hot List 2021 and 2022. He also took home the bacon from several Insurance Business Awards programs, which celebrate the best of the best in the Australian insurance industry.

So, what made Tatarka stand out over the years? Tatarka leads his team with an innovative approach that he’s developed through 18 years of leadership positions locally in Australia and overseas. He also has a keen eye for detail and understands the significance of relationships in his career, a lesson passed down to him by his late father, Ron Tatarka, an insurance industry stalwart for several decades.

In 2018, he took on the CEO role at Scott Winton Insurance and wasted no time taking the business to new heights amid a challenging market environment. Since the beginning of his tenure as the CEO, he has ensured that the company remains one of the largest independently operated brokerage houses in Australia, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused unprecedented challenges to businesses worldwide.

In an interview with Insurance Business about adapting to the changes brought by the pandemic, Tatarka said transitioning from the office to working from home was challenging.

“My dad was a bit old-school in certain ways. One of them was that he never had anyone working from home, and so I kept this policy in place when I took over,” he told Insurance Business. “Then when COVID-19 hit, we essentially had to reverse this policy almost overnight. It was a bit of a challenge at first, but the team bound together and, ultimately, we’re stronger for it.”

You can find out more about Tatarka’s insurance journey and this year’s complete list of 50 Hot List winners in the Hot List 2022 report.