Zurich Life & Investments confirms new executive appointments

Zurich Life & Investments has appointed several new executives to the team to further drive the strong growth of the retail business across the Zurich and OnePath brands.

Jacqui Lennon will join Zurich Life & Investments in February 2021 as Head of Customer & Digital. Jacqui is an experienced leader and brings a diverse range of industry experience leading product design, strategy and digital development. Jacqui is well placed to lead Zurich’s proposition development and design, as we respond to the challenge in disability income insurance and seek to offer truly differentiated and sustainable products to our customers.

Kieran Forde will commence in the role of Chief Distribution Officer at the end of November. Kieran joined Zurich from ANZ in 2018, and has held roles as Head of Bancassurance & Direct and Head of Zurich Propositions. This experience within Zurich is backed by more than 20 years’ experience at ANZ, including as Head of Wealth Solutions & Partnerships and Head of ANZ Financial Planning.

Justin Delaney, CEO of Zurich Life & Investments, said, “Both Kieran and Jacqui have a reputation for collaboration and creativity.  Their appointments, alongside those of our other executives and the distribution leaders we have in Nathan Taggart and Tim Atley, will support our commitment to partnership and adviser service.”

Also joining Zurich as Head of Strategy is Shaneen Marshall. Shaneen will lead several critical enterprise wide projects and will drive Zurich’s long-term strategy, particularly as a much larger and integrated business since the acquisition of OnePath Life. Shaneen joins Zurich from TAL where she was most recently Integration Insurance Business Director.

Next week, Daniel Longden joins the Zurich business as Chief Financial Officer, an appointment which was announced in September 2020.

“We are delighted to appoint Jacqui, Kieran, Shaneen and Daniel to these important roles. They will help to drive Zurich’s commitment to offering high quality, differentiated products for our customers and partners, which is core to our strategy and the reason we continue to invest in the OnePath and Zurich retail brands,” said Mr Delaney.

This cycle of appointments will ensure Zurich has leadership with a strong bench-strength, commercial acumen, and specialised expertise, whilst also reflecting our values of diversity, determination and forward-thinking. This will assist us in continuing to advocate for advisers and the industry to help guide Australian life insurance to a positive future.

ENDS