38 | Influential Businesswoman Awards 2026 Insurance Businesswoman of the Year 2026 (Australia): Kanika Puri Some leaders manage businesses. Others build them repeatedly, in difficult environments, to a standard they would stake their own name on. Kanika Puri, COO and Responsible Manager at Fast Cover, is the second kind. Recognised in our Influential Businesswoman Awards 2026, she speaks with the clarity of someone who has never confused success with recognition. Founded in 2010, Fast Cover has supported more than one million Australian travellers, helping them navigate the many unexpected situations that can arise before or during a trip, with customer support, claims handling and 24/7 emergency assistance all based in Australia. When customers need help most, they are speaking to people who understand them. As Kanika explains: “At Fast Cover, we believe travel insurance should be more than a box-ticking exercise. From the first quote through to the final claim, our focus is on delivering a smooth, supportive and genuinely human experience because it is not only about what is included in your cover, it is about how you are supported every step of the way.” In her role as COO and Responsible Manager, Kanika holds enterprise-wide accountability across strategy execution, business performance, regulatory oversight and customer outcomes. Having spent more than four years rebuilding, modernising and growing Fast Cover, she reflects on a career defined not by titles, but by the standards she has held throughout. Her path here was shaped not by ambition alone, but by the problems she chose to solve. Building businesses from the ground up. Scaling them faster than the systems could keep up. Leading through a global crisis when the rules changed daily and the stakes were human. In insurance, that learning is never theoretical. Behind every policy is a person who, at their most vulnerable, trusted someone to be there. “One standard has never changed,” she reflects. “Every decision I make must be one I am proud to stand behind.” For Kanika, the story of her career is inseparable from the broader story of women in this industry. It is in how women see themselves that the most meaningful change has occurred. “There is a confidence and a clarity of purpose today that is genuinely different,” she explains. “Women are arriving not to prove something, but to build something.” For Kanika, representation and influence are entirely different things. “Representation tells you who is in the room. Influence tells you who the room was built for. That is the frontier we are moving towards and it is closer than it has ever been.” Performance has always been the standard Kanika holds herself to, and she cites her consistent pattern, not any single milestone, as her career’s greatest achievement. She will only build and lead products she would confidently recommend to her own family. “Achievement, for me, has never been about what I have built. It has been about how it holds up long after the building is done.” This same principle shapes how Kanika addresses the quiet voice every leader hears. “What I have learned is that readiness is not a destination you arrive at. It is a decision you make.” The women she has seen succeed most completely stepped forward while the conditions were still uncertain. “If you are in the room, you have earned your place. Do not whisper your way through it. The world needs women who lead with conviction.” What drives lasting change is not awareness. It is performance. Every woman who steps into a high-accountability role and delivers raises the ceiling for everyone who comes after her. “That is not a burden,” she says. “It is an opportunity, and a privilege.” As an Accredited Executive Coach through Coaching Australia, Kanika works with leaders and emerging talent across industries. “Giving back is not a chapter that comes later in a career. It is woven into the work itself, from the very beginning. Leadership that does not create more leaders is, in my view, only half the job.” Kanika remains equally focused on what comes next for Fast Cover. AI integration into claims operations is already delivering meaningful improvements in speed, consistency and customer experience, and that work is expanding. Further strategic developments are underway. “The foundation is set. The ambition is clear. What we build next will speak for itself.” On her own future, Kanika is focused on contribution. “Success, for me, has never been about accumulating achievements. It has been about building things that last. Businesses that perform under pressure, teams that grow through it, and a standard of leadership I would be proud to pass on. “The work I do today is the legacy I am building for tomorrow.”
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