About

The leading German reinsurance company Munich RE has been present in Australia since 1955. Serving as senior corporate counsel for Australasia, Vivienne Webster is effectively the company’s general counsel in the region and also acts as its company secretary. Since joining Munich RE in July 2017, Webster has already gained credit for building the legal team and introducing self-help tools for business partners to ensure that they get the best out of her department’s legal support, whilst leveraging efficiencies and building trust. She is also recognised for recently working on important company acquisitions and divestments, as well as merger due diligence inquiries, FIRB applications and other regulatory assistance for a large multi-corporate merger.

Webster defines her philosophy as ‘assisting the business [to] become more resilient and helping them appreciate the value of good and early legal engagement to better leverage efficiencies and enhance deliverables’. She is also motivated by professional self-development having completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course for directors in 2017 and explaining that, ‘I found this course to be invaluable and of real benefit to my company secretarial obligations and duties’. When describing some of her personal highlights from her 17-year in-house career, Webster identifies ‘being fortunate to have worked for four superior multinational businesses in three continents and working through all aspects of corporate legal work including compliance, governance and corporate responsibility across multiple jurisdictions to achieve outstanding results [at] each entity’.

Prior to Munich Re, she held senior legal positions at other major insurance companies operating in Australia, namely, Swiss Re, Chubb and QBE Insurance as well as the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. Having held these high profile positions since 2001, Webster is a credit to Australia’s insurance sector and in-house legal community.