Asia: Lloyd’s names Ian Ferguson as regional director of APAC
Lloyd’s has appointed Iain Ferguson as regional director, APAC. Under the new organisational structure, the APAC region is a combination of the existing APAC and Greater China regions. In addition to the Regional Director role, Iain will continue as the President and COO for Lloyd’s Japan.
Mr Ferguson joined Lloyd’s in 2007, having spent the previous 20 years with RSA in a variety of international roles.
Asia: ArgoGlobal names new chief underwriting officer
Lloyd’s insurer ArgoGlobal has appointed Mr Michael Scala as its new chief underwriting officer for Asia-Pacific. Based in Singapore, Mr Scala will report to Ms Veronica Grigg, CEO of ArgoGlobal Asia.
Mr Scala has more than 35 years of experience in the insurance sector, most with QBE. He joined the Australian group in 1994, before eventually becoming head of US P&C at QBE Insurance North America in 2010. Since 2014, he has been a management consultant for High Performance Broker.
Asia: Aon strengthens its reinsurance solutions team with the appointment of new executive chairman
Aon has appointed Mr Richard Jones as executive chairman of its reinsurance solutions business in Asia.
Mr Jones will be responsible for business development and supporting clients across the Asia region. Based in Singapore, he will join Aon in May 2019.
He most recently served as chairman of Asia Pacific at Guy Carpenter, where he spent the past 31 years working across a variety of roles, having been based in Asia for the past 17 years.
Asia: GoBear appoints new product chief
Personal finance comparison website GoBear has appointed Mr Nelius Strydom as its new chief product officer (CPO), replacing Mr Marnix Zwart who will become its new chief commercial officer (CCO). Both appointments are effective immediately.
Mr Strydom has more than two decades of experience in the finance industry, including CFO roles with Standard Chartered, where he was involved in its customer profitably platforms. Since 2011, he has been helping businesses bring meaning to their customer data, digitise the insurance process, and prepare business models for scaling and expansion. In his role as GoBear’s CPO, Mr Strydom will lead on the strategy, shaping and delivery to market of GoBear’s products.
Mr Zwart is one of four GoBear co-founders. Its CPO from GoBear’s inception in 2015, he developed and grew the company’s offerings to more than 1,500 products, over 100 partners and seven markets today. Mr Zwart has close to two decades of experience in the financial services industry, conceiving, creating and successfully launching online businesses, building online B2B and B2C products, and expanding sales.
As CCO, he will be responsible for GoBear’s business development strategy, overall sales, country performance and executing on product delivery across seven countries.
Asia: AIG appoints new regional CEO
AIG announced the appointment of Mr Sachin Shah as CEO of Asia Pacific, AIG General Insurance. In this role, Mr. Shah will report to Christopher Townsend, CEO of AIG General Insurance International, and will be based in Singapore.
Mr. Shah’s appointment is effective from the end of December 2018, subject to regulatory approval. Most recently, Mr. Shah served as chairman, president and CEO of MetLife Japan, a position he held since 2013.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Shah spent five years leading MetLife’s international growth strategies, including overseeing the integration of the acquisition of Alico across more than 50 countries. Mr Shah currently serves as the president of The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Asia: AXA XL names new head of underwriting, international reinsurance
AXA XL’s reinsurance business announced the appointment of Mr Etienne Champion as head of underwriting Asia, international reinsurance.
In his new role, Mr Champion will be responsible for building AXA XL’s reinsurance portfolio and growing its market presence in Asia. He will work together with the local reinsurance underwriting teams to further develop the portfolio in key Asian markets including China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and South East Asia and ensure profitable growth.
Mr Champion has over 18 years’ experience in the insurance industry in Europe and Asia. He joined AXA Corporate Solutions in 2000 where he has held several positions within the organization. Most recently, Mr Champion was COO Asia for AXA Corporate Solutions. He was also regional underwriting practice leader for liability, motor and employee compensation supporting the AXA general insurance commercial lines underwriters in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Australia: HDI continues its expansion in region with two appointments to its property team
HDI Global SE in Australasia has announced the recruitment of Ms Jane Ravi as senior property underwriter, power and energy and Mr Jeremy Smith as underwriter, property.
Ms Ravi joins HDI from AXAXL on 10 December as senior property underwriter, power and energy, Australasia. She will be based in Sydney and will report to Mr Dale Graf, HDI’s property underwriting manager for Australasia.
Mr Smith joins HDI from Chubb as an underwriter and will be based in Melbourne, reporting to Mr Daryl La Fontaine, HDI’s southern region property underwriting manager.
Australia: Claim Central Consolidated announces new head of property repair
Claim Central Consolidated has appointed Ms Rebecca Shean as head of property repair – Australia, based in Sydney.
Ms Shean will take on the responsibility of Claim Central’s assessing, repair and restoration divisions, manage strategic projects and continuous improvement initiatives. She has more than 20 years’ experience working in the insurance industry working across a broad range of management and operations roles in: assessing, catastrophe response and change management.
Most recently, Ms Shean spent nine years at Suncorp where she was a senior adviser in event response, and managed the home claims and home assessing teams. She also worked at Insurance Australia Group for six years in several leadership roles across motor and niche products.
Hong Kong: North P&I Club’s Alan Lo retires after 23 years with the Club
After over 23 years of service, Mr Alan Lo, the director of North’s Hong Kong office, retired on 30 November. Mr Lo has served the Club and its members with distinction throughout this period and has been a respected ambassador and a good friend and colleague to all at North.
Mr Lo started his career with North in 1995 as manager of the newly-opened Hong Kong Office and became GM Asia Pacific in 2007 with the opening of the Club’s Singapore office. Mr Lo has been director (Hong Kong) since 2011.
Under his leadership, the Club’s presence in China and Hong Kong has experienced more than 300% growth in the past 10 years and the Asia Pacific region now accounts for 36% of the Club’s entered GT worldwide.
India: National Insurance Academy appoints new director
Mr G Srinivasan, former chairman-cum-managing director of New India Assurance Company, India’s largest general insurer, has been appointed the director of the National Insurance Academy (NIA) at Pune.
Mr Srinivasan’s appointment will be for a period of three years or until he attains the age of 65, whichever is earlier from the date of taking charge at his post.
Mr Sushobhan Sarker, the previous director of NIA completed his tenure on 31 October. Mr Srinivasan superannuated from the post of chairman-cum-managing director of New India Assurance in July 2018.
A chartered accountant and fellow of the Insurance Institute of India, Mr Srinivasan has won many accolades from various organisations in the market. An active practitioner and lobbyist for the industry good, he served in many government committees in India as well as in the IRDAI during his career with the public sector general insurance industry in India.
Japan: MetLife names new chairman
MetLife announced that Mr Eric Clurfain, currently executive VP and head of EMEA, has been named chairman, president and CEO of MetLife Japan (MLJ), effective 1 February 2019, subject to the necessary approvals. He will report to Mr Kishore Ponnavolu, president, Asia, and be based in Tokyo.
Mr Clurfain is taking over the role from Mr Sachin Shah, who is leaving MetLife to take up the position as CEO of Asia Pacific, AIG General Insurance. Mr Clurfain’s appointment was part of MetLife’s succession planning for the general manager role. He will oversee all of MetLife’s businesses in Japan, the company’s second largest market globally and its largest retail life insurance business.
Malaysia: Generali appoints new CEO
Generali Asia has confirmed the appointment of Mr K G Krishnamoorthy Rao as CEO of MPI Generali Insurans (MPI Generali). In his new role, Mr Krishnamoorthy will be responsible for the overall insurance operations of MPI Generali and will drive the strategic growth plans for the company.
Mr Krishnamoorthy whose appointment is effective on 19 November 2018 was previously MD and CEO of Future Generali India Insurance, a joint venture between Future Group and Generali Group, where he was responsible for the execution of the company’s strategy for growth with profitability.
Thailand: Chubb unveils country president for Chubb Life
Chubb announced the appointment of Ms Angela Hunter to the role of country president for Chubb Life in Thailand, subject to regulatory approval. Ms Hunter is responsible for leading Chubb Life’s operations in Thailand, which provides life insurance and protection solutions to meet the financial protection and security needs of a broad range of customers. Ms Hunter will report into Cunqiang Li, COO of Chubb Life.
Global: Brokerslink announces resignation of Jacqueline Legrand from her position as CEO
Brokerslink announced that Ms Jacqueline Legrand has officially resigned from her position as CEO, effective 6 December 2018.
After six years based in Europe, Ms Legrand has decided to return to New York to take on a new professional opportunity and reunite with her family. She has been involved with Brokerslink since 2009, during her time as MD for international business at Crystal & Company, NY, with the responsibility of Brokerslink COO Americas, and then when she joined MDS group in 2012 with the responsibility of Brokerslink regional director EMEA. A