TAL appoints 2 to board
TAL has appointed two experienced financial services professionals to its board including a new chair for the business.
David Cohen has been appointed as chair to replace Mark Joiner, who stood down in late 2024. He will join the board on 1 April and take up the chair position on 8 May.
Joiner had sat on the board since May 2022 and was appointed as chair the following month to replace Duncan Boyle.
Cohen was formerly deputy CEO at Commonwealth Bank, where he spent 16 years, and also worked as general counsel at AMP. As well as his TAL board role, he is currently also an independent non-executive director at Westpac.
“I’m delighted to be joining the TAL board and working with CEO Fiona Macgregor and the executive team. TAL is a great Australian business and I look forward to helping guide its future, for the benefit of all stakeholders,” he said.
Secondly, Annette King has joined the board as an independent non-executive director.
She was previously a non-executive director at MLC Super, Swiss Re, and FNZ Group and the former CEO of Manulife in Singapore. She also spent eight years at insurer AXA in a variety of roles.
Currently, she is an independent non-executive director of insurer HCF, U Ethical Investors, and mortgage broker Australian Finance Group.
She said: “Life insurance plays a crucial role in protecting the financial security of Australians. I look forward to contributing to this next phase of TAL’s journey and its focus on customer leadership.”
Christine Bartlett, who has held the chair role on an interim basis since Joiner’s departure, commented on the two new additions.
“As our new chair, we welcome David’s strong emphasis on customer, culture and risk,” Bartlett said.
“On behalf of the TAL board and executive team, I thank Mark Joiner for his leadership of the Board since June 2022 through a period of significant growth and change.”
Last year, TAL announced its group CEO Brett Clark would be departing after almost a decade and that the insurer had internally appointed Fiona Macgregor to the role. Macgregor was previously the firm’s CEO for individual life, having originally joined TAL in 2014.
Instead, Clark took up the senior role of CEO and managing director of Asia Pacific for TAL’s parent company, Dai-ichi Life Group, from 1 July 2024.
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Laura Dew
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