IAG expands remit of tech chief Neil Morgan

ASX-listed insurer IAG has restructured its operations, expanding the responsibilities of group executive technology, Neil Morgan.

Morgan, who reports to managing director and CEO Peter Harmer, will lead an expanded technology and digital division. The new division brings together the company’s IT team as well as all the digital teams from Australia and New Zealand.

That includes the digital teams that were previously part of IAG’s Customer Labs division. As part of the changes announced today, IAG chief customer officer Julie Batch — who leads Customer Labs — has been appointed chief strategy and innovation officer.

The new strategy and innovation division led by Batch will incorporate the strategy function of Customer Labs.

“We continue to evolve our operating model to better align our customer and corporate strategies and further foster a culture of innovation as we consider and create new and different services for our customers,” Harmer said.

IAG said that the changes, which will take effect on 24 February, will help emphasise the growth of the company’s core insurance business as well as “adjacent business opportunities”.

IAG recruited Morgan in February 2018 to the then newly created group executive technology position. Previously he had been chief technology officer in IAG’s Australian business, on a 12-month secondment from PwC.

In 2019, IAG completed consolidation of its claims platform onto Guidewire’s ClaimCenter. In the wake of that project, it kicked off a multi-year initiative to simplify policy administration on Guidewire, which Harmer has previously said will make it easier to respond to a sudden influx of claims in the wake of a major disaster.

Last year a particular focus of Customer Labs was on shifting all IAG customer data to a single platform, and the company in August revealed it planned to ramp up investment in artificial intelligence in the wake of a number of successful AI projects.

(In late 2018 IAG revealed it was a founding member of the Gradient Institute, which is focused on AI ethics.)