Zurich Life and Investments has appointed two senior staffers from Macquarie Life in preparation for the latter’s acquisition in October of this year.
The current Head of Commercial Management, Wealth Product & Platforms at Macquarie Group, Daniel Longden will join Zurich as Head of Strategy and Propositions and will also join the Life & Investments’ executive team.
Longden has 20 years’ experience in financial services and has held senior roles at Asteron including Chief Actuary for Australia and New Zealand, as well as Chief Financial Officer for Australia and has been with Macquarie Life since 2008.
At Zurich, Longden will oversee the development and implementation of strategy and key initiatives, as well as proposition management and development across Zurich’s life risk and investments portfolios.
He is joined by Dave Evans, the current Qld State Sales Manager – Wealth Management for Macquarie. Evans has also worked as a National Sales Manager for Retail Risk with Macquarie Life and has held senior business development roles at both TAL and MLC.
At Zurich, Evans will take on the role of National Sales Manager, Retail Risk and oversee sales across Zurich’s life insurance product range, which will expand after the acquisition with the inclusion of the Macquarie Life product portfolio. He will report to Kristine Brooks, Head of Distribution.
Both appointments will become official from 1 October 2016, which is also the expected date for the completion of the acquisition.
Zurich Life & Investments, Chief Executive, Tim Bailey said Longden and Evans were respected leaders in life insurance industry and the combination of the Macquarie Life and Zurich sales operations would shape the combined businesses into a leading market competitor.
