Zurich has promoted Giles Crowley to the newly created position of head of customer and distribution management for Asia-Pacific, responsible for working with country teams to enhance underwriting capability and local market strategies.

Mr Crowley, who has worked more than 30 years with the Zurich group, was most recently head of commercial markets for Australia and New Zealand.

As a result of the change, Sarah Powell has been appointed to the new role of head of international broker and customer engagement.

Ms Powell has worked at Zurich for more than a decade, holding broker relationship roles including state manager for NSW and the ACT. She previously worked at Marsh and Brit Insurance.

Sebastian Francis-Gash will become state manager for NSW, commercial markets, moving from his current position as SA and NT state manager. Before joining Zurich, Mr Francis-Gash spent nearly a decade in senior claims roles at Suncorp.

Head of general insurance Alex Morgan says Mr Crowley’s appointment is an important strategic step as Zurich expands across the region, while Ms Powell and Mr Francis-Gash bring “exceptional market presence”, trusted broker relationships and a track record for building teams.

“As Zurich continues to invest in scaling and innovating its operations in Australia and the APAC region, customer centricity will be increasingly important,” he said.

“These appointments represent a key opportunity to evolve the deep relationships we have in market and keep decisions close to our customers.”