Shaneen Marshall

Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich) today affirmed its support and alignment with the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) climate change roadmap – Towards a Net Zero and Resilient Future.

The roadmap charts a path for how insurers can achieve net zero emissions in their operations by 2030 and across the entirety of their activities by 2050.

Zurich Insurance Group has been carbon neutral since 2014 and as a founding member of the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) has committed to transition all operational and greenhouse gas emissions from its insurance and reinsurance underwriting portfolios to net zero by 2050.

Shaneen Marshall, Head of Strategy & Sustainability, Zurich Australia & New Zealand said: “The insurance industry has an important role to play in supporting Australia’s resilience to the effects of climate change whilst also contributing to our country’s net zero journey together with our customers, partners and employees.”

“Zurich has had ambitious net-zero targets for some time, and we are proud of the progress we have made. This transition requires significant collaboration and partnership, so joining forces with our industry to support the ICA climate change roadmap is an important step,” Ms Marshall said.

Globally, Zurich has committed to being net-zero in its operations by 2030, including:

• reducing absolute CO2e emissions from its operations by 50 per cent by 2025 and 70 per cent by 2029 (from 2019 levels)
• utilising 100 per cent renewable power across all global operations by the end of 2022
• maintaining a 100 per cent electric car fleet by the end of 2029.

In support of these targets, the Australia & New Zealand business has also committed to:

• reducing absolute emissions from local operations by 60 per cent by 2025 and 76 per cent by 2029 (from 2019 levels)
• reducing total CO2e emissions from printed paper by 50 per cent by 2023 and by 70 per cent by 2025 (against 2019 levels)
• a pilot with Reforest, a platform that connects businesses and their customers to remove CO2 and regenerate local ecosystems within Australia.

Zurich Insurance Group aims to fully decarbonise its investment portfolio by 2050 – a commitment that has already seen Zurich divest several high emitters in its portfolio – with the Australia & New Zealand business also reducing the carbon intensity of its local investment portfolio by 25 per cent by 2025 (from 2019 levels).

This builds on existing measures, including a strict global exclusion policy that prevents Zurich from underwriting or investing in companies that, amongst other things, generate more than 30 per cent of their revenue from mining thermal coal or oil shale.

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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.

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