Insurance Ireland Inclusion Breakfast Briefing

Registration & Refreshments 

Kevin Thompson, CEO, Insurance Ireland – Welcome 

Frank Mee, Chairman, Insurance Ireland Inclusion Task Force – Opening Address 

Charlotte Sweeney, Business, Diversity & Inclusion. Charlotte is Vice-Chair of the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills external Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Panel and lead on the City of London’s Diversity Programme “The Power of Diversity”

Panel Discussion:

MC – Terry Kelly Oroz, Head of Regulatory & Compliance at Irish Life Health and Insurance Ireland Inclusion Ambassador 

– Carol Andrews – Managing Director and Head of EMEA Service Delivery, BNY Mellon – 30% Club Representative 

–Penny Bryant – Head of Communications, Western and Central Europe, MetLife

–Sean McGrath – CEO, Allianz Plc

–Charlotte Sweeney – Vice-Chair, UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills external Diversity & Inclusoin Advisory Panel

Panel/Audience – Q&A

Terry Kelly Oroz, Closing Remarks 

Close 

Frank Mee is Deputy CEO and Finance Director of Allianz Worldwide Care, the Allianz Group’s international health insurance subsidiary, which is based in Dublin. Born in 1954, Frank Mee completed a BComm degree in UCG in 1975 and subsequently qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, with which he worked for 11 years.

He joined the company now known as Allianz Ireland in 1986 and served on the Board of Management of that company for many years until 1999. He was instrumental in the decision by Allianz Group to base its new international health insurance operation in Dublin in 1999. He is one the founding Directors of that business with Ron Buchan and Claude Daboul and has filled the role of Finance Director since its establishment in 1999. He was also involved in the founding of Allianz Re Dublin Limited and has served on that company’s Board since 1999. 

Charlotte has specialised in large-scale change programmes with a focus on diversity, inclusion, engagement and wellbeing for over 15 years. She is seen as a thought leader in her field and works with companies and executives from the private and public sectors to drive leadership and cultural change. 

Charlotte is also the founder of the ‘Creating Inclusive Cultures’ Programme which is a collaboration of companies to drive sustainable change on Inclusion in cities across the UK.  It is heralded as ‘the first serious programme that gets companies to work together on D&I issues in the UK regions’. She conducted an independent review on the Voluntary Code for Executive Search firms in relation to getting more women onto boards for the UK Secretary of State Dr Vince Cable. 

Teresa is a Head of Regulatory and Compliance in Irish Life Health and Company Secretary to GloHealth. Teresa has been involved in a number of financial services start-ups being on the founding management team of Vivas Health, Insurance Regulatory Capital and GloHealth.   In 2014 Teresa was shortlisted in the category or senior management for the Image Magazine Business Woman of the Year awards.  Teresa qualified as a barrister and has a Masters of European Law from the Universidad Carlos III Madrid.

Carol Andrews is Managing Director and Global Head of Client Service and Prime Custody for BNY Mellon’s Alternative Investment Services business, a leading provider of hedge fund, private equity, fund of fund administration and prime custody services.   Carol was appointed to this role in 2015 and is responsible for client service for alternative clients for fund administration and custody globally.  Carol was previously Head of Service delivery for fund administration services in EMEA including NAV and portfolio accounting, transfer agency and client services.  She has extensive experience with major integration initiatives, regulatory issues and migration projects including the expansion of the Eastern European servicing model.

Carol is founder and steering committee member of the 30% Club in Ireland.  Carol serves as CEO of BNY Mellon Fund Services (Ireland) DAC and as a Director of BNY Mellon (Poland) SP Z.O.O.  Carol is a graduate of the Women’s Leadership Forum, a Harvard Business School leadership development programme.  Carol is a Certified Investment Fund Director (CIFD) and holds a Diploma in Cloud Strategy (Part 1 of MSC in Business Practice) First Class Hons from the Irish Management Institute. 

Sean McGrath was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer at Allianz Ireland in April 2016. 

Sean has worked within Ireland’s highly competitive insurance industry for 34 years. His tenure with Allianz runs over a 20 year period during which time he has held the posts of Group Actuary, Director of Actuarial and most recently, Director of Sales & Operations at Board of Management level within Allianz Ireland and Director of Allianz Irish Life Holdings plc. 

Sean’s current role includes the implementation of a new strategic direction for Allianz in Ireland, putting Customers at heart of the company as well as embedding business logic throughout the organisation to ensure continuity of service excellence, sustained competitiveness and profitable growth.

Penny is a senior communications professional with 15 years communications experience. Penny is globally experienced across several industries including; insurance, banking and finance and telecommunications. 

Penny has held senior communication roles within key financial institutions in Australia including AMP (Australia’s premier Pension company) and was a senior communications advisor for Westpac, where she oversaw the communications strategy planning for the Australian Financial Services division. 

Penny worked in the Group Communications division at HSBC’s head office in London where she developed and led the internal communications strategy for the 320 group executive team members across 80 countries.