Life insurer AIA Australia has announced a significant boost to its Strategic Partnerships team with four new people joining the Strategic Partnerships team to help licensees and advisers navigate the life insurance reforms.
Kristen Lennis-Harvey has joined the business as its Head of Strategic Partnerships, and is responsible for managing AIA Australia’s relationships with licensees, aggregators and platforms - an increasingly important channel for life insurance. Kristen has over 19 years’ experience in financial services and joins the team from her most recent role at Zurich, where she was National Strategic Account Manager.In addition, Melissa Crawford has been appointed to the newly created role of Distribution Strategy Manager and will work with the strategic partnership and distribution teams to create leading strategies and tools for licensees and advisers. Well-known to the industry, Melissa has over 20 years’ experience in life insurance at some of Australia’s largest organisations.
These external hires are supported by two internal promotions for Matthew Wakefield and Jeremy Bernardi, who also join the Strategic Partnerships team. Matthew will take on the role of Key Account Manager, overseeing a number of AIA Australia’s strategic licensee partners, while Jeremy Bernardi becomes Key Account Manager for Platforms and Licensees, increasing the focus on the use of platforms in life insurance.
AIA Australia Chief Retail Insurance Officer Pina Sciarrone said the changes to the team come at an ideal time for the business as it continues its growth trajectory in the Australian life insurance market.
“At AIA Australia we understand that with the latest reforms to life insurance, advisers and licensees are facing a difficult change that affects the viability of their business, so by boosting our team with more experience we can better support our partners in future,” she said.
