Vale Max Salveson
It is with a very heavy heart that I write to advise that Max Salveson passed away yesterday after a long battle with cancer.
Max started his career in 1950 with the Union of Canton in Adelaide. He rose to the position of AGM Underwriting with GRE Insurance from 1980 to 1988. The GRE, now Zurich, having acquired the Union of Canton.
Max joined the LMI team over 20 years ago and was a great mentor to me has being in the general insurance so long and being a lifelong student of the industry, he was often able to explain to me why we do things the way we do. He in turn being taught by people who joined the insurance industry in the 1920’s or before.
Max embodied the principle of utmost good faith and stressed the importance of the insurance industry having a social conscience and is there to protect insured’s, communities and our economy.
When I caught up with Max 2 weeks ago, he recounted the only time he felt he let the industry down. That was when he was approached by the owner of the Swagman Hotel after it had been gutted by fire to help prepare their claim. The rumors were abounded that the fire was deliberately lit and Max, like all of us was not prepared to work for an arsonist or fraudster. He said he would only take on the commission if they swore an oath on the bible that they were not involved. They came out with a very elaborate bible and made the declaration. As it turned out, one of the senior staff was involved and the claim was rightly denied. I assured Max that he had done nothing wrong other than believe a dishonest person. That fire happened in 1991 and even after all this time it was on his conscience. This shows the measure of the man and his quest to always act honourably.
Together we made several significant changes to coverage over our time together, the last being the development of the Mark IV Consolidated ISR policy.
As I go around Australia, I am still amazed at how many people had worked with Max over his career and every single one of them had nothing but praise and affection for him, often stating how much they learned from him.
Even after coming up to 55 years in insurance myself, I continued to learn from him, and I am sure he had more to share.
As one of our team wrote after learning of his passing: I am honoured to have been able to share a little time with Max over the years and used to enjoy his ‘old school’ teaching and practices. Such valuable wisdom that he shared with all of us.
He clearly had an extraordinary career and will have a lasting impact on the industry and all of us who had the privilege to have worked with him.
Our sincere condolences go out to Max’s large multigenerational family all of whom he was very close.