17 Facts About Rodney Adler

Rodney Stephen Adler was born on 19 August 1959 and is an Australian whose family founded the FAI Insurances group, of which he became chief executive in 1989, and which was at one stage Australia's third largest general insurer.

Rodney Adler is the son of Hungarian Jewish immigrant Larry Rodney Adler, who founded the insurance company FAI in 1960.

Rodney Adler was educated at Cranbrook School, and later obtained degrees of Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales and Master of Economics from Macquarie University and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney.

Rodney Adler was appointed Chief Executive by the board of FAI after the death of his father in November 1988, at a time when the company was struggling with a number of loan exposures to troubled companies such as Bond Corp and Ariadne in the wake of the October 1987 stock market crash.

In September 2000 around the time of the announcement of the Allianz joint venture, Rodney Adler persuaded the HIH chief executive at the time, Ray Williams, to provide $10 million of HIH's money to allow him to invest and ostensibly make money for HIH.

One of the investments Rodney Adler made, through a trust called Pacific Eagle Equities, was HIH shares at a time when the HIH share price was falling sharply.

Rodney Adler resigned as a director of HIH in January 2001.

Rodney Adler was charged, tried and jailed for two and a half years over breaches of his director's duties.

In 1999, Rodney Adler was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the insurance industry and philanthropy, but gave up the award after his criminal conviction.

Rodney Adler was disqualified from acting as a director of any company for 20 years; ordered to pay compensation jointly with Rodney Adler Corporation Pty Limited and Ray Williams of approximately A$7 million; and ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty of A$450,000.

However, less than two months later, Rodney Adler was transferred to the higher security Bathurst Correctional Centre after allegedly secretly restarting his business career from within the Kirkconnell facility.

On 13 October 2007, Rodney Adler was released from the St Heliers Correctional Centre in the Upper Hunter Valley on parole, after serving two and a half years of his sentence, spending time in eight different correctional facilities.

Rodney Adler described the prison system as "Darwinian, degrading, outdated, boring and pointless" in an article written for The Bulletin magazine in December 2007.

In 2020, Rodney Adler pleaded for leniency for a debtor who failed to disclose his bankruptcy in obtaining a loan from Rodney Adler.

Rodney Adler has involved himself in various causes, including helping to promote the "Turn Friday Night into Family Night" initiative of charismatic rabbi Shmuley Boteach, reportedly discussing the initiative with Pope Benedict XVI in May 2010 during the Pope's weekly audience in St Peter's Square.

In 2010, Rodney Adler was reported to be providing consulting services on ethical business practices.

In 2011 it was reported that Rodney Adler had made investments in a range of energy and retail assets; while in 2012 it was reported he was associated with a Sydney office property syndicate.