The Lion Partnership

What The Lion Partnership does

The Lion Partnership is a privately owned, specialist insurance and risk management consultancy founded in Melbourne in 2009 and expanded to Wellington, New Zealand in January 2010. It operates as an explicitly non-broker, non-insurer advisor, engaging enterprise, mid-market, government, not-for-profit, and SME clients across Australia and New Zealand, including ASX and NZX listed entities. The firm's proposition centres on four core service modules: Tender Management and Program Review via its proprietary Statement of Capability (SOC) methodology, Policy Wording Review, Benchmarking Studies, and Enterprise Risk Management delivered in partnership with Mark Bouw Group.

The business is built around a small senior team led by CEO Peter Sellwood (35+ years at one of the world's largest global insurance brokers), General Manager Josh Tobin (19 years across claims, broking, and consulting), and NZ Managing Partner Anna Charlton (14 years in corporate and financial services risk and insurance). Deliveries typically involve 100-200+ page policy analysis, RFP/SOC tender orchestration, broker performance scorecards with KPI/SLA frameworks, and peer benchmarking studies; engagements have run for clients with annual premiums from a few hundred thousand to over $17M, and the firm has reportedly managed $850M+ in cumulative premium volume across 200+ tender projects and 200+ organisations, with documented client savings typically in the 13%-40%+ range.

The revenue model is fee-for-service, project-based advisory consulting priced per engagement scope; there is no public pricing, and clients are largely sourced via direct executive-level outreach, broker-ecosystem referrals, and thought-leadership content marketing on the firm's website and newsletter. There are no disclosed funding rounds, investors, acquisitions, or ownership changes; the firm is founder/owner-operated from its Melbourne headquarters at Level 10, 440 Collins St, with a regional office in Wellington.

Name

The Lion Partnership

Legal name

The Lion Partnership

Website

https://thelionpartnership.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Lion Partnership is an Australian-headquartered, privately owned insurance and risk management consultancy. It provides independent advisory — including tender management, policy wording reviews, benchmarking, and enterprise risk management — to enterprises, listed companies, governments, and NFPs across Australia and New Zealand.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Melbourne

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Consulting and Advisory Services: The Lion Partnership generates revenue through professional consulting fees for their insurance advisory services. These include tender management and program reviews, policy wording reviews, benchmarking studies, and enterprise risk management consulting. The company operates on a fee-for-service model where organisations engage them to critically analyse insurance arrangements, benchmark coverage and pricing, and optimise insurance strategies. Revenue is project-based and scoped to the specific engagement.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Lion Partnership provides independent insurance and risk management advisory services to organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Their core offerings include Tender Management & Program Review (Statement of Capability), Policy Wording Review, Benchmarking Studies, and Enterprise Risk Management. The firm explicitly does not act as a broker and does not sell insurance, ensuring unbiased advice on coverage optimisation, premium reduction, and corporate governance compliance.

Product overview

The Lion Partnership offers a unified consulting service for insurance and risk management advisory, centered on four core service modules: Tender Management & Program Review (Statement of Capability), Policy Wording Review, Benchmarking Studies, and Enterprise Risk Management. These services are designed to work both independently and collectively—organizations may engage single services or a combination—enabling them to optimize insurance arrangements, control costs, enhance coverage, and satisfy corporate governance requirements. The company does not act as a broker or sell insurance; instead, it provides independent, unbiased analysis to help clients achieve better outcomes from the insurance market.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Tender Management & Program Review (Statement of Capability) A comprehensive tender management service that enables organisations to leverage the expertise of multiple qualified insurance brokers to assess their current insurance program and generate competitive tension without requiring a change from their incumbent broker. Includes SOC tender processes, proposal evaluation, and broker performance assessment. Designed for ASX/NZX-listed entities, large corporates, government bodies, and major organisations.
• Policy Wording Review Technical review service that examines the effectiveness of insurance policies by testing actual coverage levels against organisational risk profiles. Includes detailed policy wording analysis (often 100-200+ pages), comparison against alternative market products, and identification of restrictive conditions, ambiguous language, or gaps in coverage. Designed for organisations seeking to validate the adequacy of their existing insurance policies.
• Benchmarking Studies Insurance benchmarking service that compares an organisation's existing coverage and pricing against comparable organisations of similar size and business activities. The service helps organisations understand their competitive position and evaluate the adequacy of their insurance program. Delivered through summarised reports and scorecards for clients.
• Enterprise Risk Management Strategic risk management solutions delivered in partnership with Mark Bouw Group, including enterprise risk management, innovation strategy development, ESG integration, board governance and training, and policy and governance support. Helps organisations proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks to guarantee long-term success.

Quantifiable outcome

• Premium savings ranging from 13% to 40%+ across various client engagements
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Mark Bouw GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMark Bouw Group is a leading boutique advisory firm based in Melbourne, Australia, founded in 2018. They have developed a global reputation as a professional services company providing business strategy, transformation, enterprise risk management, governance and board services, marketing services, and accounting and taxation services. Their partnership with The Lion Partnership enables delivery of expanded strategic risk management solutions including Enterprise Risk Management, Innovation Strategy Development, ESG consulting, and Board Governance and Training services. The partnership provides integrated solutions to navigate risk complexities while driving client success and sustainability.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Lockton: Lockton is the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage, sharing Lion Partnership's independent ownership DNA while operating at much greater scale. It serves similar enterprise risk and insurance placement needs across commercial and specialty lines globally, making it the closest direct peer in business model and customer profile.

Broad incumbents

• PwC (Risk Consulting): PwC's Risk and Regulatory practice includes insurance and risk advisory services for large enterprises and government clients in ANZ, overlapping with Lion's enterprise risk management offering. As a Big 4 firm, it competes from a much larger scale and broader consulting portfolio.
• Deloitte (Risk & Financial Advisory): Deloitte's Risk & Financial Advisory practice serves large ANZ enterprises on insurance, risk and regulatory matters and is a frequent competitor for the same C-suite and board-level mandates that Lion pursues. As a Big 4 firm, it offers much broader scale and cross-sell into audit and consulting.
• Aon: Aon is one of the world's largest insurance and reinsurance brokers, with deep ANZ operations and a broad risk advisory practice. While Lion competes for similar enterprise risk advisory and insurance placement work, Aon is a full-service broker with much greater scale, technology investment, and product breadth.
• Willis Towers Watson (WTW): WTW is a global insurance and reinsurance broker with a strong risk and analytics practice, serving many of the same large enterprise and listed-company clients that Lion advises. It is a broad incumbent that competes for ANZ risk advisory mandates as part of a much wider portfolio.
• Arthur J. Gallagher (AJG): Arthur J. Gallagher is a top global insurance brokerage and risk management services firm with growing ANZ operations, including acquisitions in the region. It competes for the same enterprise and mid-market insurance advisory and risk placement work that Lion targets, but at meaningfully greater scale.
• EY (Risk Consulting): EY's Risk Consulting practice advises large corporates on insurance, risk and governance matters across ANZ, targeting the same enterprise and listed-company clients as Lion. Its scale, brand and cross-sell into audit and tax make it a broad incumbent competitor.
• Marsh McLennan: Marsh McLennan is the largest insurance broker globally and operates a major risk advisory business through Marsh and Oliver Wyman, with significant ANZ presence. It is a broad incumbent that overlaps with Lion on enterprise insurance placement and risk advisory engagements but is dramatically larger and broker-owned.
• KPMG (Risk Advisory): KPMG's Risk Advisory practice in ANZ includes insurance and risk advisory services to large corporates, government and not-for-profits, several of which are also Lion clients (e.g., financial services, government). It competes as a broad incumbent with much deeper resourcing.

Regional players

• Crombie Lockwood: Crombie Lockwood is one of New Zealand's largest independent insurance brokerages, headquartered in Wellington, serving many of the same mid-market and enterprise NZ clients as the Lion Partnership's Wellington office. It is a regional peer in the ANZ insurance advisory market but operates as a broker rather than a pure advisor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/lionpartnership
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/thelionpartnership

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Lion Partnership