Jon Walker: Crafting restructured Axa Insurance UK to be ‘bigger, broader, bolder’ in next three-year strategic cycle

For the past 12 years, insurer Axa’s commercial lines business in the UK has been synonymous with the name Jon Walker.

Joining the business in 2014 as executive managing director for commercial lines, Walker progressed to become chief executive of this division in 2021 – working closely alongside Tara Foley, who was initially Walker’s retail equivalent before moving up the career ladder to take the helm of the overall UK and Ireland jurisdiction from Claudio Gienal in September 2023.

In 2026, Walker has undergone a promotional career pivot himself following an organisational restructure – this saw Axa UK and Ireland announce in March 2026 that it was combining its separate commercial and retail arms into a new unified general insurance business, called Axa Insurance UK.

The insurer confirmed Walker as the revitalised business’ new chief executive – effective from April 2026, when the revamped entity officially hit the market, boasting around 2,500 staff and four million individual and business customers combined.

Walker is being supported by newly appointed retail managing director Julie Barbey – who is joining the Axa Insurance UK fold from the insurance group’s French business – as well as new commercial managing director Mike Crane, who has been at Axa since January 2025 following eight years at LV= General Insurance.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Walker says the creation of Axa Insurance UK “felt like a natural progression to bring the businesses closer together” after former retail leader Alain Zweibrucker ducked out to head up Axa’s health business at the beginning of 2026.

Zweibrucker replaced Foley following her promotion, so his departure from the retail arm after a two-year stint prompted a pause for thought on whether a more effective operating model could be introduced, one that was better geared up to take advantage of artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities coming down the road.

Walker says conversations around the restructure started in Q4 2025.

“When we thought about things like the technology agenda [and] the role that AI may play moving forward, those topics felt like there was more to be gained by thinking [about it on an] insurance level rather than an individual business unit level,” he explains.

“We want to continue to grow both businesses profitably. We want to be technically brilliant, as responsive as we can be and easy to deal with. Bringing the businesses together creates a set of circumstances that makes those things more achievable.

“It’s not that they wouldn’t have been achievable [in the former business structure], but I think we can get there quicker, more effectively and more efficiently by bringing the businesses together.”

Undoubtedly, better utilising technology is a huge driver behind Axa Insurance UK’s origin story. And although Walker acknowledges that the insurer is keen to explore AI plays and use cases, the firm is not committing as to whether this focus will result in any job cuts or redundancies.

An Axa spokesperson from the media team clarifies: “The bringing together of the two businesses is designed to capitalise on our strengths and identify areas where we can work together more closely for mutual benefit.

“We’re still in the early stages of the transition. If efficiencies are identified, we’ll take the appropriate steps – but this isn’t the motivator for the change.”

Walker’s analysis of Axa Insurance UK’s setup – pulling from Axa UK and Ireland’s previously distinct retail and commercial arms – hints that staff changes could be on the horizon, however.

He tells Insurance Times: “Across areas such as risk, technology, people, finance [and] claims, you’ve got two of everything. In some of those areas, there is definitely opportunity to have one of those things, rather than two of those things, so that will enable us to operate more efficiently.

“If I think about technology, [for example, having one function rather than two] just means we can simplify our approach [which] will enable us, over time, to simplify our technology architecture and also open up our thinking about AI.

“Rather than think about AI in a siloed way, we can think about it more holistically and then apply it appropriately.”

Look and feel

Despite the synergies Walker plans to achieve with the commercial and retail arms teaming up, he points out that there are some functions, such as distribution, that will remain separate.

He explains: “We’ve been ultra thoughtful around the things that are unique and different in the businesses and the markets they operate in. So, distribution and trading is a really good example. We are not bringing that together an insurance level, that will sit in the respective businesses, still reporting into the [respective managing directors].

“Why? Because the markets are different. Some of the relationships are different and where there’s a crossover, we just bring the teams together in a much more unified way now that we’re all together as Axa Insurance UK.”

Walker is keen to emphasise that brokers and end customers should not notice a change in service following the organisational restructure – but that the insurer’s operations will get slicker over time with greater utilisation of technology.

“From a day-to-day trading and relationship perspective, it shouldn’t feel any different at all,” he notes. “We’ve been very conscious about that.

“But moving forward, the intention is to add into that mix [a] greater use of technology, which might [mean there is] more opportunities for customers and brokers to self-serve. We can get to decision points quicker. We can utilise technology to get knowledge and information in front of our own teams quicker in order to respond more quickly.

“So, very much business as usual, but with an intention moving forward to be even more responsive and easier to deal with. That’s what it should feel like over time.”

Strategy planning

For Walker, the timing could not be better for Axa Insurance UK to hit the ground running as the insurer’s UK and Ireland operation and group level are currently in the throes of finalising their next three-year strategic cycles, which will run between 2027 and 2029.

In turn, this enables Walker to not only set his priorities for Axa Insurance UK from the get-go, but to do so in alignment with the insurer’s broader national and multinational ambitions.

Confirming that he is about “80% of the way through the thinking and financial planning” for the next strategic cycle, Walker explains that his primary focus for the plan is “profitable growth” amid soft market conditions.

Other core elements of the overarching strategy include a “focus on technical excellence” – which involves building further capability across pricing, underwriting and claims – as well as using AI to the benefit of brokers, end customers and Axa employees.

Although Walker cannot divulge the financial targets around his profitable growth ambitions, as the finer details of the strategy have yet to be fully signed off at the time of writing, he does confirm that there are a number of levers he plans on pulling to continue the “momentum” he achieved in Axa UK and Ireland’s commercial division.

“If I look at our commercial business, we’ve had five consecutive years of profitable growth,” Walker says. “We will continue to develop products and propositions that resonate with customers and brokers. We will continue to look at new partner opportunities in the delegated authority space. We will continue to utilise digital to make our propositions easy to reach.

“We’ll be technically disciplined so we can navigate our way through what is currently a very soft market to make the right decisions to protect our profitability, but also being really clear about where we want to be competitive.

“It’s balancing technical discipline with ongoing product development and innovation, [as well as] staying really close to our broking and distribution partners, particularly in challenging market conditions.”

In terms of the retail part of Axa Insurance UK, Walker wants to see more partnerships cemented – following the example of its May 2025 collaboration with Lloyds Banking Group, which sees the insurer provide motor insurance to the bank’s customers.

“We genuinely believe there’s more we can do in the broker and direct space, in the retail channel,” Walker adds.

The power of team

Walker describes the new look Axa Insurance UK as “bigger, broader, bolder”, explaining that he is “genuinely pleased [and] proud to have been given the opportunity” to lead the reimagined business.

For him, leadership is all about people-centric collaboration.

He says: “What gets me out of bed is delivery of the results, seeing people grow and develop and seeing the team be successful.

“My focus has always been just do the right thing for the right reasons and you won’t go far wrong. At my age, I have no intention of changing that approach now.

“I absolutely believe in the power of team. We’re all raring to go.”