Insurance Australia : IAG appoints Mark Drasutis as Chief Digital Officer

Mr Drasutis will have a key leadership role within IAG's Customer Labs to help build an organisation that is customer-led and data-driven across IAG and its brands including NRMA Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC and WFI in Australia, as well as NZI and AMI in New Zealand.

Mr Drasutis has more than 20 years' media and digital product experience. He joins IAG from News Corp Australia where he has led the digital product, platform, UXD, audience insights and innovation teams as Chief Product Officer, Digital. Before this role he was Head of Innovation responsible for transforming the company's digital and innovation strategy and culture.

Prior to News Corp Australia, Mr Drasutis led a team at Yahoo! Europe, Middle East and Africa, delivering engaging consumer experiences across a wide range of markets and platforms using data and customer insights to inform strategic business decisions.

Mr Drasutis will join the IAG Customer Labs team in mid-October 2017 reporting to Chief Customer Officer Julie Batch.

'Mark is an innovator, consumer product expert and strategic visionary who cares deeply about building high-performing teams, working in agile environments and focusing on the needs of customers,' Ms Batch said.

'Under Mark's guidance, we can accelerate our focus on driving IAG forward to become a leader in digitally-enabled customer experiences.'

Mr Drasutis will lead IAG initiatives to anticipate what's next for its customers in a connected world and deliver those experiences.

'Digital is now central to insurance services and sets new levels of customer expectations for IAG and its brands to make peoples' lives safer,' Mr Drasutis said.

'This opportunity to combine the great teams, data, platforms and technologies at IAG was one I couldn't miss. I am looking forward to helping set the course for customer-focused growth across all the IAG brands, now and for the future.'

Mr Drasutis' CDO appointment follows former New York's Saatchi and Saatchi CEO Brent Smart's appointment in February 2017 as Chief Marketing Officer within the Customer Labs division. Mr Smart now leads brand portfolio management, marketing strategy and creative for IAG and its brands.

IAG's Customer Labs, which launched in 2015 and now includes IAG's digital and marketing teams, is responsible for customer experience. It also drives product innovation through data and insights, pricing, brand architecture, human-centred design, and new business incubation and venturing.