Storms greet Snowball, hail bids farewell

Patrick Snowball says after six years at the helm of Suncorp, he's leaving the insurer in a solid position with strong growth momentum.

Outgoing Suncorp boss Patrick Snowball says he's leaving the insurer in a solid position. (AAP)

Floods, cyclones and a global financial crisis greeted Patrick Snowball during his first days as Suncorp's chief.

Now six years on, his final days in the job have been stamped by hail damage claims.

"The weather gods marked my arrival in 2009 with floods and cyclones and they have farewelled me with hail, hail and more hail," Mr Snowball joked.

While weather and market events are out of his control, the outgoing Suncorp chief executive has led a successful transformation of the insurance giant.

Mr Snowball says the company is leaner and more unified.

"In the insurance business, different parts of the company were suing each other, employees sitting next to each other were on different sets of employment terms and conditions and, although we had world-class IT platforms there were simply too many of them," he said.

He said just when he felt the group was regaining its confidence and credibility, Queensland was hit by a sequence of natural disasters of "biblical proportions" during the summer of 2010/11.

"Looking back now, this was the tipping point for the business and for our culture as for the first time everyone pulled together to get through the crises," he said.

"It was the shot in the arm that everyone in Suncorp needed.

"Suddenly, Suncorp had its mojo back. People were proud to work for the group and customers were reminded of the value that you get from insuring with a company you can trust."

Mr Snowball is returning to his country of birth, the UK, and will hand the reins to the former director of property group GPT, Michael Cameron in October.

He reassured shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday that he's leaving Suncorp in a solid position with strong growth momentum.

He said the insurer was ready to take advantage of industry changes, including state governments opening compulsory third party insurance to competitive tendering and changes to workers' compensation.

"The opportunities are many and varied, and we are ideally positioned to take advantage of them," he said.