It will now be focussed around three core areas - Corporate, Retail, and In-force - in a move designed to meet the demands of a changing marketplace and to best position the company for growth.
"Zurich's UK Life business is strong and profitable, and this is the next step in its evolution to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our customers and partners and build a market-leading position," said Shaughnessy, who took over as CEO in June.
The three areas are:
-Corporate: comprises Zurich's Corporate Savings and Corporate Risk business units, to be led by Simon Foster as the new Head of Corporate. Simon (currently head of Zurich Corporate Savings) will be responsible for all aspects of the Corporate business area.
-Retail: covers Zurich's intermediated retail proposition, including its actively-marketed life, pensions and investment proposition and its retail platform supporting financial advisers. Gary Shaughnessy will be interim Head of Retail until a permanent successor is appointed.
-In-force: incorporates responsibility for Zurich's existing propositions and products designed for the market pre-Retail Distribution Review. Alastair Beveridge continues in his current role as Head of In-Force management.
The three Heads of these areas will all report to the CEO.
"In a competitive market it's essential that we align our business in the right way" said Shaughnessy. "By-re-shaping our business, we are ensuring that we are well placed to drive strong and profitable growth across the company whilst at the same time delivering for our customers and our people in a post RDR world."
Other senior management changes resulting from this re-alignment include the introduction of a new Head of Propositions role, forming part of the Executive team and reporting directly to the CEO. Peter Hamilton, currently head of Protection Proposition, will assume this role on an interim basis until a permanent appointment is made.
Richard Howells, Intermediary Sales Director remains on the Executive team, with a reporting line change into the new Head of Retail.
Zurich also announces today that after nine years with UK Life as a key member of the Executive team and UK Life boards, David Etherington has decided to leave Zurich and will be stepping down from his role as Chief Growth Officer at the end of July. He will however stay with the business until the retail platform is launched later this year.
"David is an exceptional business leader and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank him for his passionate and innovative pursuit of success for the business during his time at Zurich," said Shaughnessy. "David has been a key architect of our platform strategy and he is now focussed on the successful delivery of the retail platform following the well received corporate launch earlier this year."
The role of Chief Growth Officer will not be retained. Other Executive roles remain unchanged.
The new structure will take effect from 31 July 2012.
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