Axa veteran retires after two and a half decades at insurer

Insurance industry veteran Dougie Barnett has retired after a career of more than 40 years.

Barnett began his career in Glasgow in 1982, working as part of Sun Alliance’s underwriting team for five years before moving to New Zealand Insurance (NZI) to specialise in risk management.

In 2001 Barnett joined Axa, where he spent the next 25 years holding a series of senior leadership positions. This included head of customer risk management and latterly director of commercial customer risk management and sustainability.

A thought leader in the industry, Barnett has represented Axa on strategic ABI programmes, consulted on government and regulator discussions and represented the firm across radio, TV and print appearances.

In recent years Barnett also founded the firm’s global loss prevention board, led on green building and sustainability initiatives, developed Axa’s engagement on electric vehicles and, as a founding member of its global risk management board, managed strategy, policy and talent development in Europe and Asia.

Clear and effective leadership

Jon Walker, chief executive at Axa Commercial, said: “Barnett has been an integral part of Axa Commercial’s success and has provided clear and effective leadership for our customer risk management function for almost 25 years.

“More recently Barnett has led the development of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to extract and utilise information at speed from risk engineering reports and spearheaded the rollout of the Axa Climate School to our broking partners and customers.

“Barnett’s foresight, expertise and experience has touched so many areas of our commercial business and the wider industry and he’ll be greatly missed. He will be leaving Axa with our thanks and best wishes and we wish him well for a very happy retirement from full time leadership.”