Francis Burgess will join Zurich Life & Investments in the newly created role of Head of Pricing, Group Insurance. Francis will join Zurich from TAL where he was most recently Head of Pricing. Prior to TAL, he spent time at Pacific Life Re as the Head of Pricing. During his career, Francis has played a key role in winning some of the industry’s largest tenders.

Francis is appointed alongside Jennifer Faglioni and John Mirotsos, who respectively have taken up the roles of Head of Product and Head of Partnerships. Jennifer and John were internal appointments, in line with Zurich’s commitment to career development.  They took on their new responsibilities in September and June respectively.

A Head of Member Engagement and Innovation is also being recruited to the Group Insurance leadership team and is expected to fill the role in October.

These roles report to Darren Wickham, Head of Group Insurance.

On the appointments, Mr Wickham, said, “We are delighted to have the deep expertise and diverse capabilities of Jennifer, John and Francis coming together to reinforce our group insurance capabilities and in boost our partner and member service approach.

“Francis brings with him deep technical expertise and professional leadership. His appointment will help boost Zurich’s actuarial strength, whilst delivering new insights and innovation to our partners. His skillset will be complemented ably by John’s relationship experience and Jennifer’s deep knowledge of member needs and future product imperatives.

“Zurich is the largest retail insurer in Australia and is investing in its group insurance business.  These appointments demonstrate our determination to be successful in the market.”

Jennifer was previously the Head of Group Claims at Zurich and has 14 years of industry experience. Prior to her time at Zurich, Jennifer spent time at both ANZ and MLC Australia.

John was previously the National Sales Manager of Group Insurance at Zurich Australia and has over 30 years of industry experience at institutions such as ANZ Wealth and ING.

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Tina Beilby

Zurich Life & Investments has announced several key appointments in its operational team, to support both the Zurich and OnePath life insurance brands and provide a consistently high-quality experience for financial advisers and customers.

The appointments include:

• Tina Beilby to the newly created role of Head of Operations, Integration
• Joanne Faglioni to the newly created role of Chief Claims Officer.  The Claims portfolio includes both retail and group claims across Zurich and OnePath Life.
• Sheriff Hamza is appointed to the role of Head of Retail Claims, whilst Jennifer Faglioni is appointed Head of Group Claims.
• Peter Tilocca as Chief Underwriting Officer.

These changes will formally bring the Zurich and OnePath underwriting and claims teams together under the functional leadership of Peter and Joanne respectively, creating one of the largest groups of specialised life underwriters and claims personnel in Australia.

The Head of Operations, Integration, under Tina’s leadership, will be responsible for key initiatives to support our claims, underwriting and service leaders to drive a more integrated, flexible and best-practice service , and to support our people on this journey.

Peter, as Chief Underwriting Officer, will ensure that the underwriting approaches across the Zurich and OnePath retail portfolio remain distinctly different, so true product choice is available to Australian customers across Zurich’s Wealth Protection, Active and Sumo range, and OnePath’s OneCare retail proposition.

Gavin Pearce, Zurich and OnePath’s Chief Operations Officer, said, “These appointments are a next step in our journey of integrating our Zurich and OnePath operational teams, so they may share best practice and work more effectively within their combined functions. The structure has been designed to support excellent customer and adviser service outcomes both now and into the future.

“Our operations leadership team is one of the strongest and most respected in the industry, and we are delighted to retain the prowess of individuals from both the OnePath and Zurich businesses.  These appointments reflect the career aspirations of our team members, which is one of our ambitions as an employer-of-choice.”

Financial advisers are encouraged to keep working with their nominated BDM and underwriting contacts at Zurich and OnePath.

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