French insurer AXA Group has announced evolutions within its Management Committee for the launch of its next strategic plan, which will be presented during the first quarter of 2024. This comes with an overhaul of the Management Committee with new appointments that have taken place. The committee will be reporting to Thomas Buberl CEO of AXA, starting on July 1st.
Françoise Gilles takes over as Chief Risk Officer from Renaud Guidée, who has been appointed CEO of AXA XL Reinsurance, succeeding Nancy Bewlay, who will become Group Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO), a newly created role.
Anu Venkataraman is now the Group Chief Strategy Officer for the Head of Investor Relations in addition to her current role as Group Head of Investor Relations. She will join the Management Committee and report to Frédéric de Courtois and Alban de Mailly Nesle, Group Chief Financial Officer and member of the Management Committee.
Some key changes within certain geographies have also been made. Patrick Cohen, who is a member of AXA’s Management Committee and CEO of AXA France, has been appointed CEO of European Markets and Health. In addition to supervising AXA’s European entities, he will be undertaking the creation and development of a new business unit which will gather and accelerate the Group’s key international Health operations.
Guillaume Borie, Deputy CEO of AXA France is appointed CEO of AXA France and joins the Management Committee.
Hassan El-Shabrawishi, CEO of AXA Africa has been named as the CEO for International Markets. In this role, he will oversee AXA’s operations in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, India and South-East Asia.
Both Borie and El-Shabrawishi will report to Buberl.
Buberl, the CEO of AXA commented on these strategic changes, “2023 is a pivotal year for AXA as it marks the end of our plan Driving Progress and the start of a new strategic cycle for the coming three years. We are on track to exceed the objectives of our current plan and I would like to thank all my leadership team for this remarkable performance, despite an often uncertain and difficult environment. I would like to thank in particular, for their crucial contributions, Georges Desvaux, Antimo Perretta, and Gordon Watson, who have played an important role in the transformation of the Group and will step down from AXA’s Management Committee.
“This renewed team confirms the strength and diversity of AXA’s internal talent pool. It also gives us the opportunity to evolve the perimeters of some of our markets and central functions, to prepare the Group for the implementation of our new strategic ambition and our long-term priorities.
“I am very happy that Patrick Cohen is taking on oversight of our European operations and the development of our international Health business. Patrick has successfully led AXA France, both in terms of transformation and performance. I am also delighted to announce the appointment of Guillaume Borie as CEO of AXA France. Guillaume has done a great job leading all our distribution networks in France since 2019 and is perfectly positioned to pursue the development of this core entity. I am also very happy that Hassan El-Shabrawishi, who has successfully led our operations in Egypt and Africa during these past years, will now be in charge of developing our operations in some of our most promising markets and growing them to their full potential.”
“I would also like to thank Gordon Watson for his decisive contribution to the transformation of our business in Asia, which allows us to evolve towards a geographical organization adapted to the different profiles and needs of our entities in the region. As Non-Executive Chairman for Asia, he will support the implementation of this new phase and continue to help the teams with his unique experience,” continued Buberl.
“I am delighted to appoint Françoise Gilles as new Group Chief Risk Officer. She will bring her leadership and her previous experiences as Chief Risk Officer across different entities and regions. As Group Head of Investor Relations, Anu Venkataraman has proven her strategic vision and excellent knowledge of the industry. In her capacity as Chief Strategy Officer, she will succeed Georges Desvaux, who has decided to retire at the end of the year and whom I would like to thank for his key contribution to the success of our Driving Progress plan as well as for the preparation of our next strategic cycle. I look forward to working with all members of my leadership team in finalizing and launching our next strategic plan,” concluded Buberl.
