Congratulations on your appointment as CEO of Zurich Cover-More. Could you share a little about your professional journey and what led you to this role?

Thank you, and it’s an amazing honour to lead this global group of talented and committed colleagues in Zurich Cover-More who share a vision to be the most outstanding travel insurance and assistance business in the world.

My journey to this role has been steeped in the global travel insurance industry, which I have been part of for the past 35 years. I first joined the AIG Travel business in 1999, and prior to that I worked with American Airlines for almost 10 years. From 2006, I led AIG Travel as President and CEO and oversaw a period of strong growth and expansion as we started working with some of the world’s best-known travel, aviation, and credit card brands. Zurich completed the acquisition of AIG’s personal travel business in December 2024, and I was appointed CEO, Zurich Cover-More, in July 2025 following David Fike’s retirement.

As you begin your new role as CEO, what will your primary responsibilities be, and what are you most looking forward to?

With Zurich Cover-More, we are bringing together like-minded and complementary businesses – including Cover-More Travel Insurance, Travel Guard, Travelex Insurance Services, World Travel Protection, Universal Assistance, Freely, and Blue Insurance – to create a global force in travel insurance and assistance.

While we are on a mission to integrate the strengths of these businesses, I am primarily focused on leading and growing our businesses and partnerships globally and maximising the immediate market opportunity ahead of us with the help of one of the most tenured and committed teams in our industry. We have an extensive global footprint which provides our thousands of partners and millions of customers with the full value chain of travel insurance products and services – all focused on delivering more care, more cover for all.

And what am I most looking forward to? Meeting more of our Zurich Cover-More colleagues. I am committed to actively listening and working to build upon the strengths we have so we can realise our vision together. Of course, I know Travel Guard well, and now I am also enjoying meeting my new team members and learning how they have built their part of the overall franchise.

What major trends or challenges are you seeing in the travel insurance market in 2025, and how is Zurich Cover-More adapting?

It’s clear that economic uncertainty and geopolitical instability are impacting where and how people travel. But most importantly, travellers want to feel safer, they want to know more about their destination before and during their trip, and they want to know who to contact when they need immediate help.

Proactive safety for leisure and business travellers is something that is top of mind for all our customer-facing brands within Zurich Cover-More, and has been since the worst of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Today, Zurich Cover-More has industry-leading travel safety apps that can push real-time alerts to travellers when they are geolocated in areas of emerging and dangerous events, such as civil unrest and protests, terrorist incidents, and natural disasters, e.g. earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes. So, when high-risk events occur, our 24/7 global command centre teams located across the globe are able to track where customers are and contact them to ensure they are safe or to help them if they need assistance.

The uptake and attachment of travel insurance has seen a marked upward trend worldwide since the global Covid-19 pandemic, and we are continuing to see that, especially as international travel has never been more expensive and more exposed to risk.

There is an increased prevalence of natural disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes and volcanoes, and other events such as this year’s power outages at Heathrow Airport and in Spain/Portugal. As a result, we’re seeing a very significant increase in demand for trip cancellation and trip interruption coverage. While all our Zurich Cover-More travel insurance brands provide a comprehensive set of cancellation coverages in our plans, there is certainly more interest in extra cancellation options and ‘add-ons’ such as cancel-for-any-reason and Cancellation Plus offers.

With ongoing instability in the global landscape, are geopolitical issues creating challenges when it comes to underwriting or providing travel insurance policies?

The main impact from current geopolitical issues is an increased concern from consumers regarding their safety and security when travelling, and a commensurate interest in travel insurance as a means of protection. For example, there is a growing demand for insurance plans that include security evacuation coverage, and we have plans available that meet this need. That is why we are focused on how we can make travel safer for travellers through proactive care, travel safety apps, destination advice, and targeted education.

How are changing traveller behaviours – in both how people travel and how they buy insurance – impacting the way insurers design and deliver their products?

The global pandemic taught us that travel insurance had to step away from traditional models of protection and engagement, and embrace real-time, proactive care and greater protection for travellers before, during and after their journey. And Zurich Cover-More remains focused on how we can continue to push the industry forward and deliver safer, more connected travel with a transformed digital customer experience and more protection for what today’s travellers want to do on their trips.

In some of our brands, we offer additional cover for adventure and x-adventure activities, including free falling, cliff diving, base jumping, hang gliding, parasailing, and mountaineering, as the trend for the ultimate adrenaline rush while travelling continues. And obviously, being able to do everything digitally and rapidly is critical in today’s purchasing environment – purchasing a policy, updating your policy, downloading an app, asking for help, getting medical assistance, finding a hospital or medical clinic, or submitting a claim. And more.

In addition, despite our best efforts through marketing and sales activities, we know that many of our younger customers continue to underinsure themselves against travel activities, including motorcycling, adventure sports, cruising, and rental car hire. Underinsurance not only leads to a poor experience come time of claim but also has the potential for significant out-of-pocket expenses. For example, we are seeking to reduce this underinsurance through utilising advanced analytics in motion and sensor technology to deliver service-based coverage messages to motorcycle riders in real time.

We are also offering an innovative mobile medical self-management system integrated with automated medical triage, allowing rapid assessment of the customer’s symptoms and connection with the best medical provider option based on geolocation. These are just a couple of examples of our commitment to push the travel insurance industry forward with an innovative and forward-thinking customer experience.

What do you believe makes a strong and successful partnership, and are there any upcoming collaborations you’re particularly excited about?

I think strong and successful partnerships are possible if four key things are present: shared goals, mutual respect, common values, and a joint desire to put end customers at the heart of our decision-making.

Partnerships also need constant attention and care, and to be grounded in trust. Zurich Cover-More works with many of the world’s pre-eminent travel, airline and hospitality brands, banks, and leading retailers, and the majority of these partnerships are long-standing relationships of which we are extremely proud. We have a strong pipeline of new partnerships across the globe, and we’ll be happy to share details with ITIJ as and when the time is right.

How is Zurich Cover-More embracing digital innovation to improve the customer journey?

I’ve discussed Zurich Cover-More’s approach to digital innovation in the preceding questions. In summary, Zurich Cover-More’s purpose is to be there at every step of our customer’s journey and, to support this, we continue to transform the digital customer experience with our brands across the globe through innovation, design, and applying new technologies such as the motion-sensing technology described above.

As a further example, in 2023, the Cover-More Travel Insurance app was awarded ‘Travel Insurance Product Innovation of the Year’ in the ITIJ Awards. The effectiveness of the Cover-More app was demonstrated in Turkey and Syria in February 2023 when Australian travellers to the region could be pinpointed in the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake. Travellers were identified in Turkey through the app, then each of the travellers were contacted to confirm they were safe and well and did not require help.

Looking ahead, what’s your vision for Zurich Cover-More over the next few years, and where do you see the greatest opportunities for growth?

My vision for Zurich Cover-More is to be the leading global travel insurance and assistance business, not because we declare it to be so, but because each of our customers whose journeys needed mending know that we care about their specific need, even as we seek to provide more care, more cover for all. We know that our proposition in travel is an excellent platform from which we can increase customer loyalty, extend our credibility with customers, and deliver value and an exceptional experience to them.

And with that will come greater benefit and growth for our partners as we look to meet more of our customers’ needs through other products and services. As we continue to strengthen our business, one thing is very clear: we are starting from such a strong foundation, steeped in a strong culture of assistance and putting customers at the heart of everything they do. This defines who we are, and I know that we can only become stronger. We have already achieved a great deal, and I’m very excited for the future.