AXA Health appoints new CEO

AXA Health has announced the appointment of Heather Smith as its new CEO. Smith will take on the role from mid-January 2024, subject to regulatory approval.

She succeeds previous incumbent Matt Vardy, who has served as Interim CEO since the departure of Tracy Garrad in March 2023.

Smith joins the company from Allianz, where she served as the Managing Director for Retail, and was responsible for providing personal lines insurance to 3.7 million customers. She has also previously worked for other industry names such as Aviva – where she served for 10 years across both its Life and General Insurance sectors – and Aviva Health.

Tara Foley, CEO of AXA UK and Ireland welcomed Smith aboard, stating: “Heather is a strong and authentic leader who has a wealth of experience developing high performing teams and delivering the best outcomes for customers in both health and insurance businesses. I’m confident that she is an excellent fit for AXA and is the right person to lead Health through the important next stage of strategy delivery.”

AXA launched OneHealth by AXA in Nigeria – a state-of-the-art hospital in the city of Lagos – earlier this year.