Alok Agarwal, MD&CEO- designate, Zurich Kotak General Insurance
Agarwal , who started his career with Reliance Industries in 1989 , is an old hand in the Indian general insurance industry and has spent over 22 years in ICICI Lombard General Insurance
Mumbai: Overhauling its new Indian non-life joint venture(JV)- Zurich Kotak General Insurance- to implement its ambitious plans to become one of the major players in the industry, multinational Zurich Insurance has appointed Alok Agarwal, executive director, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, the second largest general insurance company in the country, as the new MD&CEO of the company.
Agarwal, who was earlier in the race to succeed Bhargava Dasgupta as MD & CEO in ICICI Lombard General Insurance after later quit the company to join Asian Development Bank, will join his new company shortly.
Zurich Insurance, with assets over $400 billion and having presence in 200 markets, had recently picked up a 70 per cent stake in Kotak General Insurance by paying Rs 5,560 crore (USD 670 million), through a combination of fresh growth capital and share purchase, the largest ever foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Indian insurance sector.
Zurich Kotak General Insurance Company aims to strengthen and scale up its commercial insurance portfolio, reflecting the increasing demand for commercial insurance coverage and solutions in the market.
Earlier, Sean Walker, Head of Commercial Insurance & Chief Technical Officer,Zurich Insurance, APAC had said, “As Indian businesses continue to grow, Zurich Kotak is well-positioned as a key risk management partner, helping commercial customers better understand and navigate current and emerging risks. We will look to work closely with customers and brokers, providing comprehensive insurance solutions, risk management advice and resilience support, including engineering and climate risk strategies. Our goal is to empower small, mid-market, large and global Indian companies to support their growth as they achieve success on the international stage.”
A formal official announcement about Agarwal’s appointment at Zurich Kotak General Insurance will be made shortly, said industry sources.
Agarwal , who started his career with Reliance Industries in 1989 , is an old hand in the Indian general insurance industry and has spent over 22 years in ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
He has been an executive director of the company since January 19, 2011
He has also worked with ICICI Bank for a few years before joining ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
He will succeed Suresh Agarwal, who was heading the company, before Zurich picked up stakes in it, since May 2021.
Zurich Kotak General Insurance has also restructured its board of directors by inducting Srinivas Injeti (IAS), former secretary, ministry of corporate Affairs, as non-executive chairman, D Sundaram and Ravi Venkataraman as independent directors.
The new board now includes Tulsi Naidu, Mathew Reilly, Pushan Mohapatra, Gaurang Shah, and Jaideep Hansraj.
Rs three trillion Indian general insurance industry has seen many change of guards in recent months. Earlier, Amit Ganoakar, CEO, Royal Sundaram General Insurance, has been appointed as CEO of Tata AIg General Insurance after Nilesh Garg quit the company after serving it for the last nine years.
The post of CEO at Manipal Cigna Health Insurance has fallen vacant from Oct 31 after Prasun Sikdar was appointed as the CEO of Bima Sugam.