Allianz Group has announced the creation of Allianz Commercial, a global commercial insurance segment encompassing its AGCS business serving large corporate clients and its businesses serving mid-sized, country-based accounts.
The new approach anticipates an the increasing globalization of risks, closes internal structural gaps in market reach, and extends Allianz’s product offering and delivery at the local level to meet a clear market need.
Allianz Commercial allows us to deliver the full value of Allianz’s scale and full set of capabilities for the benefit of our customers, brokers and shareholders
Chris Townsend, member of the Allianz SE board of management
Clients and partners should expect a more consistent underwriting approach, with coordination on global scale.
Allianz Commercial will feature one single lead in each country or region to represent its commercial businesses, a move it said is intended to simplify the experience of clients and distribution partners.
Its trading, underwriting, and customer delivery teams are expected to work closely together under the model, according to the press release. The legal entities conducting the insurance business and their leadership are expected to remain the same.
ACGS has added two new members to its board of management while also updating the responsibilities of existing members.
- Jon-Paul Jones appointed as new Chief Operating Officer in the AGCS SE Board Of Management succeeding Bettina Dietsche
- Dirk Vogler joined the AGCS SE Board of Management in a newly created role as Chief MidCorp Transformation Officer
- Further changes in the allocation of AGCS SE Board responsibilities to reflect the new Allianz Integrated Commercial strategy
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS) announces two new members to its Board of Management and also changes in the responsibilities of individual current Board Members. These changes reflect the wider role that AGCS will have in contributing to Allianz’s new Integrated Commercial strategy which will drive profitable growth through collaboration between the Mid Corporate (MidCorp) business of national Allianz operational entities (OEs) and AGCS, as announced.
Joachim Mueller will lead the integrated ‘Allianz Commercial’ business as part of his responsibilities as CEO of AGCS SE. Under the new collaborative model clients and distribution partners will experience a consistent underwriting approach and access harmonized insurance solutions that are globally coordinated and locally delivered with one market interface. The move is fundamental to the Allianz Group strategy to expand its leadership position in property and casualty and to grow through scalable platforms.
The two new Board Members are Jon-Paul Jones as Chief Operating Officer (COO) succeeding Bettina Dietsche who has already moved to Allianz SE as Chief People and Culture Officer, and Dirk Vogler as Chief MidCorp Transformation Officer, a newly created role in the AGCS SE Board of Management in response to the Integrated Commercial strategy. Vogler has been appointed on February 1, 2023; Jones’ appointment will be effective as soon as regulatory approval has been received.
As Chief MidCorp Transformation Officer, Dirk Vogler oversees the program office which has been set-up to establish the new collaborative model between AGCS and the Mid Corporate business of national Allianz OEs, starting with AGCS partnering with the Allianz OEs in France, Germany, UK, and Australia. Vogler joins AGCS from Allianz Versicherungs AG in Germany, where he was most recently a Member of the Board of Management with responsibility for the Corporate Division, a role he held for more than four years. He joined Allianz Group in 2016 and prior to that he held various senior positions in the insurance industry.
As COO of AGCS, Jon-Paul Jones oversees Global Business Operations, IT, Protection & Resilience, Corporate Services Transformation, Global Process Management, the Global Data Office as well as major IT transformation projects. Previously Global Head of Business Transformation at the Global Commercial Insurance unit at Allianz SE, he joined Allianz as Regional Chief Operating Officer for Allianz Asia Pacific in 2020. Before that he spent more than 15 years in the insurance industry in a variety of leadership roles focusing on information technology, modernization and shared services, and also spent three years as CEO of an insurer in Asia.
Besides these two appointments a number of changes in responsibilities come into effect for some of the current AGCS SE Board Members:
- Currently Chief Underwriting Officer Specialty, Dr. Renate Strasser will move to a newly created AGCS SE Board role as Chief Technical Officer. She will oversee all global functions that focus on technical excellence in underwriting, pricing, portfolio management, risk consulting and reinsurance as well as ESG/Climate Solutions.
- Shanil Williams will now take on expanded responsibility for all nine AGCS global lines of business, both Corporate and Specialty, as Chief Underwriting Officer.
- Compliance, Human Resources and the ‘NEW AGCS’ Transformation Program Office will move from CEO Joachim Mueller to Chief Financial Officer Claire-Marie Coste-Lepoutre. She will also take on the role of Deputy CEO on the AGCS SE Board, after Joachim Mueller.
- Joachim Mueller, in support of his lead role for Allianz Commercial, will also take responsibility for the business in the United Kingdom, France and Australia. These three countries have large Allianz MidCorp portfolios and are key parts of the Integrated Commercial AGCS/OE partnership.
- Other countries or regions continue to report to either Henning Haagen, Chief Regions & Markets Officer 1, or Tracy Ryan, newly appointed Chief Regions &, Markets Officer 2.
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