It has been a while since Amanda Blanc had this much free time.
The former Axa Group chief executive of UK and Ireland, who has been on gardening leave since her departure from the insurer was announced in April, has been doing a lot of cycling, and attending her daughters’ school plays and sports days.
But she has not relaxed too much as she is about to take on two big appointments this year.
One, as the first chairwoman of The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the other, as Zurich’s chief executive of Europe, Middle-East and Africa, roles she will start in the fourth quarter of this year.
She has joined the ABI at a time when gender equality and diversity and inclusion have become the hot topics on everyone’s lips from financial services, the media, right across to government and entertainment.
And the financial services sector is currently one of the most scrutinised when it comes to the challenge of attracting more women to the industry.
In mid-June the Treasury committee published a unanimously-agreed report “calling for the reform of bonus negotiations and promotion of flexible working to abolish alpha-male culture in finance and encourage the progression of women to senior levels”.
Ms Blanc, who gave evidence to the Treasury select committee on women in finance earlier in the year, said she no longer witnesses alpha-male culture the same way she did 15 years ago. She added: “The major problem we have is not with an alpha-male culture, it is with progressing women through organisations.
“If you look at the representation of women in organisations, when women and men enter organisations it is pretty much 50/50 and it continues that way for a little while. Then you sort of reach the middle of the organisation and suddenly the number of women fall off as more leadership positions [appear] and men move into the leadership positions. I don’t think there is enough research that looks at why that is.”
One way Ms Blanc believes the industry could attract a more diverse workforce is to not look boring or as if the industry is lacking in innovation, when the opposite is true, she said.
“There is a huge amount of modernisation in insurance and long term savings. Digital is being led in many cases by the financial services sector. Fintech in London and other big cities is really strong and dynamic, so why do people not feel attracted to financial services? It is about us promoting that modernisation agenda and the fact we are diverse, exciting, and we do care about customers.”
Promoting the sector will be among her priorities as ABI chairperson, working with the rest of the board and its director general, Huw Evans.
Rolling out the pensions dashboard is another big task on Ms Blanc’s to do list.
This comes amid denials from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which is overseeing the pensions dashboard project, that the scheme might be scrapped.
Responding to a story in The Times the DWP said work on the dashboard is continuing, despite reports that secretary of state Esther McVey has moved to kill off the project, saying the service should not be provided by the state.
The ABI has said it is vital the government stands by its promises on the dashboard, as abandoning it would be a “huge let-down” to millions of savers.
Speaking to Ms Blanc prior to The Times story being published she said: “A pension is complicated enough. If you don’t know where all your pensions are or what holistically they look like when drawn together how can you possibly make lifestyle decisions or choices?”
As her start date at Zurich approaches, Ms Blanc is unable to say much about her new role, but group chief executive Mario Greco was a big factor behind her decision to accept the job, a man she describes as being a proponent of transparency and simplicity in financial services.
Additionally, she was attracted to the culture at Zurich where a good number of the women work in profit and loss positions.
She is also very passionate about being a disrupter in her own sector. With her chief executive hat on Ms Blanc warns that the insurance, long-term savings and health sectors are ripe for disruption, and the question will be whether firms will be disrupted externally or from within.
To prevent the threat of external disruption, she is a strong advocate of the industry working in partnership with disruptors to deliver good outcomes for customers.
Ms Blanc herself brings a great deal of experience to Zurich. At Axa, she was tasked with turning around the fortunes of the UK business, which she joined in 2011.
Prior to Axa, she was deputy group chief executive of one of UK’s largest insurance brokers, Towergate, now part of the Ardonagh Group.
Her experience of dealing with brokers at Axa will be something she will apply at Zurich and at the ABI.
Ms Blanc said: “Advisers are similar to brokers and they play a vital role. They have the same challenges: of relevance, digital and conflict of interests. At the end of the day you have a customer, you have an adviser [or broker] and then you have a provider. You have platforms and various other things. The terminology can be different, but I think the issues are not that different.”
Click here to watch FTAdviser's video interview with Amanda Blanc.
Ima Jackson-Obot is a features writer at Financial Adviser and FTAdviser.com
