After a tenure of almost 16 years at Axa, the new appointee looks forward to getting stuck into his new role

Axa veteran Waseem Malik has this month (March 2022) joined Aviva as the company’s new chief claims officer for UK general insurance (UK GI).

In his new role, Malik will be responsible for the management of Aviva’s end to end general insurance customer claims process. He will also continue the business’ transformation of its claims function.

He will report to Adam Winslow, Aviva’s chief executive of general insurance for the UK and Ireland. Malik’s move was initially announced last year in November 2021.

In a LinkedIn post, Malik declared that he was leaving “after 16 wonderful years at Axa UK”.

He thanked Axa UK and everyone that had contributed to his journey, adding that it was “time for change”. Malik said: “I can’t wait to get started and meet my new team and colleagues. Exciting times ahead and looking forward to doing great things with the team.”

Adam Winslow, Aviva’s chief executive, UK and Ireland GI, said: “I am delighted that Malik will be joining Aviva to bring his focus and expertise to our UK and Ireland general insurance claims business at a time when we are transforming how we work with our customers, both simplifying and digitising our operations. In motor alone more than 65% of customers use our online capabilities to report their claim.

“Malik’s extensive experience in claims will help accelerate this digitisation as well as keeping us firmly centred on the claims needs of our customers and brokers.”

Hugh Hessing will continue as interim UK GI chief claims officer until March 2022 when Malik joins Aviva. 

Claims focus

Malik continued: “I’m very excited to be joining Aviva and to be contributing to the ambitious plans for the business. I have heard great things about Aviva UK and Ireland general insurance claims.

”I am looking forward to leading the team at a time when there is so much opportunity to advance the way we manage claims with customers, enabling them to engage with us in the way they prefer and to provide a fast and efficient service.”

Malik first began at Axa UK in 2006 as its head of mergers and acquisitions. Over the course of his tenure, he held several senior roles including head of executive office and corporate development, and chief financial director.

His most recent role at Axa was executive managing director of claims, which he held for nearly four years.

Prior to this he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) for nearly nine years in two senior roles – senior manager in audit and senior manager in transaction services.

Speaking on Malik’s move, an Axa UK spokesperson said: “Over the last three years, our claims function has been on a huge transformation journey, enhancing processes and service to improve the overall claims experience and customer satisfaction.

”Great progress has been made in this transformation, part of which has involved aligning different parts of claims to the business they support, either retail or commercial.

”These changes will ensure that business areas have clear ownership of the end to end customer journey and support our overall customer first transformation. They will also receive best practice, shared services and market leading technical support from the newly formed claims technical and central services function.

“Claims is the moment to shine for our customers and the way we have transformed our claims function will ensure that both our retail and commercial teams can continue to deliver the best service for our customers.”  

Axa will not be replacing Malik directly. Retail claims will be overseen by Anna Fleming, retail chief operating officer, while Ursula Wyman - Axa’s commercial chief operating officer - will oversee its commercial claims operations. 

Axa has also set up a new claims technical and central services centre, which will be led by its claims technical and central services director, Karl Parr.