Former Agency Head of Prudential Asia Rejoins AIA in New Role

AIA Group Ltd. has appointed Bill Lisle, a former agency development head for Prudential Corporation Asia, as group chief distribution officer based in Kuala Lumpur.

The position is "a newly created role," said a Hong Kong-based spokesperson for AIA Group, the Asian life insurance operations of American International Group Inc. This is also the second leadership appointment by the insurer within a week.

AIA appointed Australian Marc de Cure as the group's chief financial officer to succeed former CFO Steve Roder, effective Sept. 27 (BestWire, Sept. 15, 2010).

AIA has been planning for a public listing in Hong Kong by the end of 2010, after U.K.-based Prudential plc failed to acquire AIA with an offering price of US$35.5 billion in June (BestWire, June 7, 2010).

Lisle will be responsible for all group office resources supporting distribution, including the regional agency and the alternative distribution teams. He will also work closely with regional managing directors and country CEOs and their teams, according to AIA.

Both Lisle and de Cure will directly report to Mark Tucker, executive chairman and chief executive officer-designate of AIA Group. Tucker was a former CEO of Prudential plc (BestWire, July 19, 2010).

AIA's agency force "will remain the key channel" and a source of competitive advantage for the insurer, as the company sees material opportunity to increase the scale and productivity of its distribution channels, said Tucker in a statement.

The group's goal is to become the "pre-eminent" life insurance provider in the Asia/Pacific region, with its "leading pan-Asian agency force and growing bancassurance and direct marketing partnerships," noted Tucker.

Lisle has 23 years of international experience in the insurance industry. In 2001, he was AIA's head of agency development in Singapore. He then joined Prudential Corporation Asia, the Asian operations of Prudential plc, as director of agency development for South Asia, and became chief agency officer for the India-based ICICI Prudential. He was subsequently promoted to CEO positions in South Korea and in Malaysia, according to AIA.

Prior to taking up the new position at AIA, Lisle has been the managing director of South Asia at another U.K.-based insurance group, Aviva plc, since May 2009. He was responsible for the group's businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, India and Sri Lanka, said AIA.

AIA Group has about 320,000 agents and 23,500 employees across 15 geographical branches in Asia, with more than 23 million in-force policies in the region, according to the insurer.

(By Rebecca Ng, Hong Kong news editor: Rebecca.Ng@ambest.com)