Zurich Middle East
The insurer has named Simon Price as head of market management Middle East.
In this role, he is responsible for propositions, pricing and marketing and reports to chief executive of Zurich Middle East Walter Jopp.
Price previously held other senior roles at Zurich; including chief financial officer of Singapore, head of propositions in Indonesia, and was responsible for strategy and transformation across Middle East.
The firm has also hired Theo Alexandrescu as head of sales Middle East.
He will be responsible for all sales functions in the region.
Alexandrescu joins from Metlife Gulf, where he was general manager.
Openwork
The UK financial advice network has hired Abbie Gibson and Alison Bruford as head of wealth advice and sales processes, and head of channel marketing, respectively.
Gibson joins from Quilter, where she ran the wealth relationship management team.
She will focus on bolstering the team’s operations to increase productivity and adding value to adviser businesses.
Bruford will be responsible for developing the wealth proposition’s marketing strategy as well as supporting advisers with marketing.
She joins from Blackrock where she was vice president of product marketing Emea and has previously worked for Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, Invesco Perpetual and Pictet Asset Management.
In other news, Mike Gummerson has decided to retire at the end of the year.
Gummerson is the head of Openwork’s business transition and practice productivity teams, as well as wealth development manager
He returned to Openwork in 2010 after running his own consultancy business, having started his career at Allied Dunbar before moving to Axa and Prudential.
Intelliflo
The global fintech provider has appointed Johann Koch as business development director – international.
Koch has specialised in adviser technology for over 16 years, including 12 years in business development roles at Iress, seven of which were in Australia.
For the past two years, Koch has been involved in business development in London’s wealth and asset management community for SEI.
In his role, Koch will be tasked with establishing business development teams and developing partner communities in each international territory.
Belasko
The Guernsey-based private client service provider has named Paul Lawrence as group chief executive.
Lawrence was previously global head of funds at Intertrust in London and, before that, group director at Elian Global.
He will be based in Jersey.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Dr June Smith has been promoted to deputy chief ombudsman.
Smith was previously lead ombudsman of superannuation, advice, investments and life insurance.
She was also chief executive of the code compliance monitoring committee for the Code of Banking Practice, and general manager of code compliance and monitoring at the Financial Ombudsman Service (Fos).
Also, Afca has appointed Evelyn Halls as lead ombudsman of banking and finance.
Halls has been promoted from ombudsman of banking and finance decisions.
She has over 20 years of experience in the legal and financial services industry.
