Our Team

Maybe you?

Do you want to join the Primacy team?

We are always looking for great people that can bring their Intelligence, Energy, Integrity to help our customers grow their business.

Students and Entry Level : Click here for information on our industry leading internship opportunities. 

Experienced Hires: If you want to learn how you can join our team, click here and send us some information about why you're a great fit. 

Marcus Pearl

Chief Executive Officer

As Primacy’s proud CEO, Marcus is passionate about guiding the business, inside and out, to align with industry and grower needs. Those who work with him will tell you he has an enviable combination of enthusiasm and experience and an uncanny understanding of client needs.

Previously as Director of Commodity Sales within ANZ’s Global Markets division, Marcus was responsible for helping customers achieve their financial goals through risk management solutions across the Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Holding an MBA from the University of Melbourne, Marcus specialises in insurance and finance. Over the years, he’s gained extensive experience across business strategy, business development and sales working with ANZ and specialist insurance underwriting with Aon.

Marcus is a proud Aussie passionate about public policy, community issues and economic development.
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Georgia Lipman

Chief Operating Officer (Acting)

As COO at Primacy, Georgia brings with her an abundance of insurance knowledge from previous roles including senior underwriter for the B&A division of Allianz Vic/Tas for over 10 years. She has a passion for the insurance industry and the service we provide to our clients.

Georgia joined Primacy in 2016 to oversee our operations, including product development and delivery, claims support, management support, IT underwriting support, broker management and general office management.

Richard Watt

Head of Underwriting and Sales

A loyal employee of 18 years, Richard originally joined Agricola Crop Insurance in 1998, and brings with him years of experience in the insurance sector.

Richard’s role at Primacy is to lead our team of skilled and specialist crop and forestry underwriters and sales professionals. He’s responsible for developing new products, which align with growers’ needs, managing key account relationships and developing our corporate and marketing strategy.

Richard is passionate about driving the growth of our business.

Warren Gauci

Senior Underwriter

With more than 20 years experience in the insurance industry, Warren has worked for some of Australia’s most recognised insurer brands, including CGU and RACV. He brings with him exceptional technical skills and knowledge within the insurance industry.

Warren joined Primacy in 2008 and is currently managing and underwriting forestry and greenhouse risks in Australia and NZ. He’s also responsible for process management and performance review for our forestry and greenhouse portfolios. He ensures the ongoing development of each product as well as seeing to essential business and IT electronic solution development activities.

Kalpana Lal

Senior Underwriter

Kalpana is a skilled underwriting professional with a wealth of technical knowledge and insurance experience. She’s now been with Primacy for over 15 years and plays an integral role in our team, developing underwriting guidelines and policy wordings for our cotton, horticulture and fruiting tree & vine products. She’s also responsible for underwriting risks and providing excellent customer service and support to our clients.

Before Primacy, Kalpana managed the CHU account at QBE insurance.

Tan Ratanapatoom

Underwriter

Tan is a Broadacre and PrimeGuard product specialist and our point of contact for all matters relating to these products. He’s also responsible for all sales and marketing activities across the NSW and QLD regions.

Before Tan joined Primacy in 2012, he worked for a high-profile marketing agency where his focus was developing digital strategies, implementing marketing and branding activities and event management for clients within the IT sector throughout the APAC region.

Mara MacKinnon

Assistant Underwriter

With more than 10 years experience in the insurance industry, Mara has exceptional knowledge of insurance products, including insurance for film, motor, directors’ & officers, professional indemnity and income protection. She’s also assisted senior commercial underwriters with aviation and marine insurance products.

Mara joined Primacy in June 2011 as an Assistant Underwriter. As well as providing administrative and customer service support, she assists with underwriting and claims processing across all our products, and the testing of IT products.

Trish Naidoo

Assistant Underwriter

Trish has sound knowledge of the insurance industry and extensive experience across a wide range of insurance products. Prior to joining Primacy in June 2016, she was a domestic underwriter for home and contents policies. She was also a personal insurance consultant for travel, boat, motor, home, contents and farm products.

At Primacy, Trish is responsible for assisting with processing of amendments, quotes and policies for our broadacre, horticulture and fruiting tree and vine insurance products. She also provides support to our clients, assisting them with general product queries.

Anastasia Saphira

Assistant Underwriter

Anastasia joined Primacy in 2016, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge from Indonesia working as a finance insurance officer for an agriculture company, where she looked after assets such as palm oil plantation, buildings and cars. She also provided marketing support to Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group, managing client enquiries and visits.

Here at Primacy, Anastasia provides invaluable administrative and customer service support to our underwriting team.

Ian Whiting

Claims Manager

Ian joined Primacy in July 2012 and brings with him 39 years of experience in the insurance industry. He has extensive industry knowledge, having worked across underwriting and claims for most general insurance products, both domestic and commercial.

As claims manager for Primacy, Ian is responsible for processing and managing all claims, monitoring and management of our loss assessors, out of season reviews, professional development, customer service and OH&S.

Ian is an Associate of Australian Insurance Institute (CIP) and also holds a Certificate of Business studies.

Natasha O'Dea

Senior Claims Officer

As a Senior Claims Officer, Natasha is heavily involved in the daily management of claim allocations, claim review payments and revising policy wordings.

Natasha spent over 7 years at Allianz in their commercial claims team. Before Allianz, she was an insurance manager at an independent, Australian owned petrol company.

Robin Dragwidge

Financial Controller

As a loyal employee for over 20 years, Robin has witnessed Primacy’s evolution since we first started as Agricola Crop Insurance in 1995. Today, Robin heads up the overall financial management of our Australian & NZ operations.

With more than 37 years experience in financial management roles in the insurance industry, Robin has worked in Melbourne, Perth and Papua New Guinea.

At heart, he’s a family man, loving nothing more than spending weekends with his wife, children and grandchildren watching Tom Hanks movies.

David Quinlan

Applications Manager

Having started with Primacy in 1998 as an IT contractor, David is now our applications manager, overseeing the development of both applications and infrastructure to support our overall IT requirements.

David holds a Bachelor of Science and a Graduate Diploma in Computer Science and brings with him extensive IT experience having previously worked for Leiton Enterprises and NDC Solutions.

In his spare time, David enjoys playing golf, tennis and cricket for his local clubs.

John Porra

Applications Developer

John has been with Primacy for over 12 years, originally joining Agricola Crop Insurance as a contractor in 2004 to build the first version of our web based broker system. Today, he’s sole developer of our essential PATH and email system managements.

John brings with him unprecedented knowledge in desktop application support, managing network issues and coordinating full-scale rollouts of hardware and software environments. He specialises in Lotus Notes and Domino and development of web based applications.

John lives in Ballarat and enjoys technology, new gadgets and building things from wood, metal and electronics. His life ambition is to build a smart mirror and a working R2D2.