- John Heaney joins AXA as part of its continued push into the schemes space
- Heaney reports to Deepak Soni, whose current role has been expanded to include responsibility for schemes business
- Tim Yorke is appointed as Director of Transformation
AXA Insurance has underlined its commitment to the schemes market with the appointment of John Heaney to the newly created role of Head of Schemes.
John Heaney, who has also served as Global Underwriting Officer for package business at AIG, joins AXA on 22 January. Prior to working for AIG, Heaney led the UK Retail Commercial Underwriting at Hiscox.
Heaney will report to Deepak Soni, current Director of Commercial Intermediary eTrading, who will lead the revamped schemes unit as part of a new, expanded role within the commercial leadership team.
In addition, AXA has appointed Tim Yorke as Director of Transformation. Yorke, who has held a number of previous roles including Chief Operating Officer for ERS, will take up his new post on 22 January.
As part of the role, which is for an initial 12 month period, Yorke will lead the delivery of the transformation programme for AXA‘s commercial lines business, with overall responsibility for the change and operations teams.
The appointments, which are in line with AXA’s wider Ambition 2020 plans, follow the promotion of Gareth Howell, Executive Managing Director of AXA Retail, Jon Walker, Executive Managing Director of AXA Commercial and Waseem Malik, Executive Managing Director of Claims, to the board of AXA Insurance. Heaney, Yorke and Soni’s roles sit within AXA Insurance’s commercial intermediary business.
“Schemes business is a vital element of our future growth and I am delighted that John has joined AXA to help spearhead our efforts. John has significant experience in developing strong books of schemes business and will work closely with Deepak in his new role to deliver the same at AXA.
“In tandem, securing the expertise of Tim is a huge statement of intent and confirmation of our determination to continue evolving and meeting the demands of brokers. He brings diverse, hands-on experience of delivering strategic change and in 2018 will help us to deliver a step change in the delivery of our modernisation programme.
“With these roles in place I am confident we can continue our strong push toward our goals for 2020 and beyond.”