About

Professor Paula Jarzabkowski

I am a Professor of Strategic Management at The University of Queensland and City St George’s, University of London. I am a global expert in public-private mechanisms, globally, to address the disaster insurance protection gap and government programs to increase homeowner and community disaster resilience.

As climate-driven weather events create damage and loss of life, livelihood and property around the world, fewer people can rely on insurance to rebuild after disaster, falling into poverty and exacerbating inequality and hardship.

Industry Research That Guides Real Solutions

My research aims to address this problem in two ways.

First, I lead international teams in examining how we can bridge the financial gap in disaster recovery by transforming the insurance market into a partner in adapting to climate change, including how innovations in disaster risk financing and risk pooling can support climate adaptation and response.

Second, I lead interdisciplinary teams in studying how to bridge the physical gap in disaster risk mitigation, by developing and implementing effective policies for relocating people away from disaster or making their housing disaster resilient.

Society is at a tipping in point in terms of the devastating damage and losses arising from climate change and growing urbanization in climate-exposed areas. I believe strongly that everyone deserves to be protected, and supported to recover, from the ensuring disasters.

My research is, therefore, underpinned by the strongest scientific principles, and designed to have practical and policy impact. To broaden the impact and reach of my research, I run workshops, release scientific reports in the public domain, and make keynote speeches at industry and policy events.

Expertise, Collaborations, Leadership

I work collaboratively with policymakers, insurance and reinsurance companies, development and donor organizations, and government departments around the world, in pursuing my agenda for positive societal transformation. This website provides information on projects I have done, funded by industry and government bodies, financial organizations, scientific research councils, and charitable trusts.

My expertise is widely recognised as a member of the OECD High-Level Advisory Board for the Financial Management of Catastrophic Risks; the Lloyd’s of London Futureset Technical Advisory Group; and the Pool Reinsurance Company Advisory Council.

If you would like to know more, please follow me on LinkedIn, sign up for updates from my website, and contact me if you have a specific request.

Research

My research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, the Bank of England, the British Academy, the Economic & Social Research Council, the European Commission, the Insurance Intellectual Capital Initiative, the Leverhulme Trust, the Lloyd’s Tercentenary Foundation, Natural Hazards Research Australia, and the Swiss Prevention Foundation, as well as various industry sponsorships. You can find out more about my work and download some of my research on this website.

Connect or Follow

Awards & Recognition

Professor Jarzabkowski has had several prestigious awards and fellowships throughout her career:

2024 - 2025

2021 - 2023

2016 - 2020

2011 - 2015

2006 - 2010

2024 - 2025

2021 - 2023

2016 - 2020

2011 - 2015

2006 - 2010

Testimonials

Professor Jarzabkowski’s research regularly informs my own thinking and that of my executives at Pool Re. Furthermore, I know that her research is widely respected and sought after in the international sector of terrorism risk pools, and that it has been specifically drawn upon to inform analysis by peers in other terrorism pools, such as the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation, for whom Professor Jarzabkowski recently completed a report on terrorism insurance gaps in Australia. I have high respect for the impact and usability of Professor Jarzabkowski’s research and continue to collaborate with her as we face a landscape of rising and systemic risks that necessitate a pooling approach to cover the ever-increasing protection gaps.

I have worked with Professor Jarzabkowski at different industry events, on policy-informing forums, and drawn upon her research to inform debate and evaluation of the purposes and evolution of catastrophe PGEs in both the Spanish insurance market and in the wider sector internationally. I have enormous respect for the value of the research knowledge that she and her team develop, and the efforts that they go to, to ensure that this knowledge is made easily accessible and useful to the sector.

I have drawn upon Professor Jarzabkowski’s research to inform strategy in my own Centre, collaborated with her in an international team in developing evidence- based reports to inform wider policy-making as well as observed the impact of her normative theoretical contributions upon the wider audience working on disaster risk financing to address the protection gap. I respect the effort Professor Jarzabkowski makes to ensure her research not only publishes in leading scientific journals but is also available and useful, practically, to practitioner and policy audiences.

Paula's work has had tangible benefits to the industry through the specific frameworks, tools and diagnostics she has developed. These frameworks are grounded in her very detailed analysis of the reinsurance industry. While they bring an academic perspective that enables participants to see 'the big picture', they are also practical and immediately useful, unlike much academic theory, which it too abstract to be applied……..There is no doubt that Paula's reports and results resonate with our industry. They provide an effective set of frameworks around which to have some difficult discussions about industry change.

Mission statement

To bridge the growing financial protection gap from catastrophic disasters by fostering innovative solutions that enhance individual and community resilience and promote sustainable economic development in the face of climate change.

Vision statement

A world where individuals, businesses, and communities are financially and physically protected against the devastating impacts of climate-related disasters, enabling them to thrive and contribute to a resilient and equitable future.

Values

Collaboration

Working together with governments, reinsurance markets, development banks, donors, and humanitarian organizations to address the global challenge of climate-related risks.