Mr Hawkins said: "I'm pleased to announce several key executive appointments today as we move to quickly embed our organisational structure led by a strong, experienced and disciplined leadership team. The appointments are testament to the capability we have within our company and our ability to attract new leaders to the business."
Julie Batch is appointed Group Executive Direct Insurance Australia and will immediately move into that role after acting as Group Executive Intermediated Insurance Australia since November, in addition to leading IAG's Strategy & Innovation division. Ms Batch was previously the company's Chief Customer Officer.
"Julie is an insurance expert with more than 15 years' experience at IAG leading reinsurance, underwriting, strategy and innovation. For the past five years, Julie has helped to simplify and improve the experiences we can provide to our customers, and I'm excited to see that potential deployed within our Direct Insurance business," Mr Hawkins said.
Jarrod Hill will join IAG in September as Group Executive Intermediated Insurance Australia from Chubb Insurance where he was Country President Australia & New Zealand.
"Jarrod is a seasoned commercial insurance executive with a strong background in technical underwriting and brings with him more than 30 years' industry experience. We have an opportunity to build a strong intermediated business and I look forward to welcoming Jarrod to the team to drive that work," Mr Hawkins said.
Neil Morgan has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately, and will retain his accountability for technology and digital from his previous role as Group Executive Technology and Operations.
"Neil has helped drive a step change in technology for IAG since he joined three years ago and has more recently been accountable for enhancing operational efficiency and alignment across Australia and New Zealand. Neil's combination of technology, digital, operational and execution skills will be critical to progressing our strategic priorities and enhancing our customers' experiences with our brands," Mr Hawkins said.
Amanda Whiting has been appointed CEO IAG New Zealand after acting in the IAG Direct Insurance Australia role since November and will take over from Craig Olsen in August, subject to completion of regulatory approvals in New Zealand. Amanda will have executive accountability for Intermediated Insurance Australia until Mr Hill joins in September. Mr Olsen will continue to report to Mr Hawkins after August, working on IAG's corporate priorities as Group Executive Strategic Projects.
"I'm pleased to announce Amanda's appointment as CEO New Zealand. Since joining IAG in 2008, Amanda has shown a deep passion for our customers and our people, successfully driving improvements across our direct and commercial insurance businesses. I'd also like to thank Craig for his significant contribution to the success of our New Zealand business over the past nine years, five of those as CEO," Mr Hawkins added.
The appointments follow changes to IAG's operating model and executive team announced in November last year to better align to IAG's brands and customer proposition. This included the split of the company's Australia Division into Direct Insurance Australia and Intermediated Insurance Australia.
Executive biographies
Julie Batch, Group Executive, Direct Insurance Australia
Julie was formerly Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer and Group Executive Intermediated Insurance Australia (Acting) and she has served as IAG's Chief Customer Officer.
In her Strategy & Innovation and Customer roles, Julie helped IAG reimagine the experiences it can provide to customers, and her new role will enable her to further realise this potential in the Direct Insurance business.
In Strategy & Innovation, Julie combined strategy with customer governance, chief underwriting office, data, artificial intelligence, innovation and venturing. Her focus was on building new growth pathways and developing future capabilities across Australia and New Zealand. In Customer Labs, she was responsible for improving customer experiences and driving product, pricing, marketing, and digital innovation using data and analytics.
Julie joined IAG in 2005. She has deep insurance expertise, including experience in capital, reinsurance, underwriting, risk management and corporate governance. Previous roles in the business include Chief Analytics Officer, responsible for Group Reinsurance and Analytics, and Chief Risk Officer in IAG's then Direct Insurance business. Earlier in her career, she held senior roles at Gen Re Australia, part of the Berkshire Hathaway Group, as well as with other reinsurance organisations.
Julie is a Director of Gradient Institute, a not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to progress the research, design, development and adoption of ethical artificial intelligence systems and was previously the Co-Chair for the insurance stream of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI PSI).
She has a Master of Applied Finance and is a Fellow of ANZIIF.
Jarrod Hill, Group Executive, Intermediated Insurance Australia
Jarrod Hill will assume the role of Group Executive, Intermediated Insurance Australia in September 2021.
Jarrod was formerly Country President Australia & New Zealand with Chubb Insurance. He is a seasoned insurance executive with more than 30 years' industry experience, including a strong background in technical underwriting, combined with distribution and regional management roles.
He will use these skills to drive the success of IAG's new Intermediated Insurance Australia division. This division was established in November 2020 to support IAG's strategic focus on building better businesses. It brings together underwriting, claims, brand and customer to focus on growing the scale of the partner and broker business, embedding digital capabilities to drive exceptional service and improved performance.
This appointment sees Jarrod's career return full circle: his first role was in underwriting with Commercial Union, a predecessor to the current CGU insurance business.
Neil Morgan, Chief Operating Officer
Neil leads our Technology & Operations team, combining IAG's capability in digital, data, technology, operations and program execution, to deliver on our corporate strategy.
Working across the Group, Neil is responsible for our strategic change agenda, enabling the customer, colleague and partner experience of the future. Through delivering at scale, trans-Tasman, this team drives simplification, efficiency and operational resilience.
Neil joined IAG in February 2018, in the newly-created role of Group Executive Technology, responsible for implementing IAG's technology strategy across the company. This team was accountable for integrating Technology across Australia and New Zealand, creating opportunities to invest in industry and technical capability and moving to more contemporary delivery methods.
Before joining IAG, Neil worked at PwC and Accenture. As a PwC Partner, Neil led the firm's Technology Strategy business in Australia; he spent over 10 years at Accenture, leading an industry team across the Asia-Pacific region to deliver technology and business-led transformations.
Craig Olsen, Group Executive Strategic Projects
Craig Olsen will move to his new role as Group Executive Strategic Projects in August. Until then, he will continue in his current role as Chief Executive New Zealand where he has driven a strong performance of that business.
Craig was previously Executive General Manager - Direct Insurance New Zealand. Prior to that, he was Executive General Manager - Transformation, responsible for the successful integration of AMI into IAG in New Zealand.
Craig joined IAG in 2000 and has held a number of senior roles in Australia and New Zealand, including Head of Workers' Compensation - Victoria, and national General Manager of CGU Workers' Compensation division.
He is a director of Loyalty New Zealand Ltd, First Rescue and Emergency (NZ) Ltd and Sureplan New Zealand Limited.
Amanda Whiting, CEO New Zealand
Amanda has been Group Executive Direct Insurance Australia (Acting) since November 2020. Prior to that, she was Executive General Manager Consumer Distribution in IAG's Australia Division, responsible for the distribution of brands including NRMA Insurance, CGU Insurance, SGIO and SGIC across multiple distribution channels.
She joined IAG from iiNet in 2008 and has more than 20 years' experience in the insurance industry in both general and health insurance, having held senior roles in these industries as well as telecommunications.
At IAG, Amanda's roles have included Executive General Manager SME Direct, General Manager Lifestyle and Leisure, and Head of Sales and Service/Customer Delivery Channels. She has a demonstrated ability to continually build and refine business capacities and the organisational culture required to deliver them; and to manage large-scale divisional profit and loss, and the risk and the regulatory environment.
Until she takes up the new role in August, Amanda will have executive accountability for Intermediated Insurance Australia and will focus on maintaining the momentum the team has built in that business over the past few months.
