Henry Kila

Kila joined the insurance industry in PNG before the country's independence in 1975, at a time when insurance was dominated by expatriates, and Papua New Guineans found themselves being treated less than equally. Helped by an outgoing personality, excellent social skills, and a well-developed sense of humour, he quickly rose through the ranks of the industry and in 1979 was granted a licence to operate his own company. However, the other insurance companies at the time informally decided to blacklist his brokerage, arguing that the company lacked professional insurance experience. Fortunately for Kila, one company broke ranks with the others and his company started to win business, and by his death had become one of the two largest insurance broking firms in PNG.^[1][2][3][4]

Kila's contribution to the growth of PNG as a nation was also quickly recognised outside of the insurance industry and he took leadership roles in business and in sports administration at provincial and national levels. Despite pressure to do so he was not interested in a career in politics and, instead, chose to serve in unpaid positions on business chambers, industry councils and sporting federations. He was a founding member in 1995 and president from 2006 of the PNG Business Council. He represented PNG as one of its three members of the Business Advisory Council (ABAC) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. He was president of the Papua New Guinea Sports Federation and Olympic Committee from 2000 to 2003.^[1][2][3][4]

Kila died from a heart attack in Port Moresby on 4 January 2010. Among those to offer condolences was the prime minister, Michael Somare, who described his death as "great loss to the business community and the sporting fraternity of Papua New Guinea". Somare also spoke about Kila's "humble demeanour" and his role as a man who "tried to assure Papua New Guineans an equitable share in economic development".^[1]