AIA NZ recruits internationally experienced CTO

AIA NZ has recruited a new chief technology officer who has extensive experience in IT operations, software, and infrastructure delivery working in organisations in London, New York, Auckland and Singapore.

Monday, September 6th 2021, 8:53PM

by Matthew Martin

Marc Hale is returning with his family to New Zealand and joins AIA NZ from Standard Chartered Bank Singapore, where he held the role of Global Head of Technology Operations.

Hale has held senior roles at Orion Health and ClearPoint in New Zealand, at Thomson Reuters in New York, and various technology roles in London following graduating in Software Engineering Management at Bournemouth University.

AIA NZ chief executive Nick Stanhope says the appointment and role is more important than ever, with technology a key enabler of AIA’s strategic priorities.

“Over the past couple of years, AIA NZ has completed a major system integration project and significantly improved our digital tools, journeys, and systems.

“We’re in a perfect position now to build on that stable platform and accelerate our strategic priorities in technology, digital, and analytics.

"We’re excited to have someone of Marc’s calibre join us to lead the technology team and continue to grow our culture of technical innovation and creativity.”

Hale says he's excited about the technology challenges and opportunities he sees within the life and health insurance industry.

“As an industry, we have a huge opportunity in front of us to continue to improve customer experiences, simplify and modernise our tech stacks, and grow our digital partnerships.

"Insurance IT is modernising fast and has such a broad range of opportunities from wearable devices, microinsurance, advanced analytics, and more,” Hale says.

“At AIA NZ, we’ve made great progress in digitising customer journeys, and building our capabilities in automated underwriting, self-service, and straight-through processing."

Tags: AIA health insurance Life insurance recruitment tech innovation