Geneva Association Women in Insurance Award Presented to AXA's Garance Wattez-Richard for Inclusive Insurance Initiatives That Protect Underserved Populations

New annual award celebrates women insurance leaders whose work positively impacts society and contributes to making insurance a force for good

ZURICH, May 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The first annual Geneva Association Women in Insurance Award goes to Garance Wattez-Richard, CEO of AXA Emerging Customers, for her work to tackle the insurance protection gap in emerging markets and protect underserved populations.

Charles Brindamour, Geneva Association Chairman and CEO of Intact Financial, said: "I would like to extend my congratulations to Garance Wattez-Richard on this award which recognizes her important contributions to protecting vulnerable segments of society. Her dedication to promoting inclusive insurance will have a lasting impact, empowering individual and business customers alike. Ms Wattez-Richard's work speaks directly to The Geneva Association's mission to highlight the contributions of insurance to societal resilience and prosperity."

Garance Wattez-Richard commented: "The Geneva Association Women in Insurance Award is precious recognition of the work my team and I have been doing to push the borders of insurability and make protection relevant and accessible to more segments of the world's population. This work, sadly, will only be more needed as the COVID-19 crisis hits all countries, emerging and developed, extremely hard."

Ms Wattez-Richard founded AXA's Emerging Customers business in 2016. It now distributes insurance to 18 million customers across Asia, Africa and Latin America by engaging over 50 public- and private-sector partners in 10 countries. Among its successes, AXA protects 500,000 entrepreneurs in Egypt, 75% of whom are women, and partners with Airtel Payment Bank in India to protect 3 million customers.

The selection committee for the 2020 Geneva Association Women in Insurance Award was comprised of Mr Brian Duperreault, CEO of AIG, Dame Inga Beale, former CEO of Lloyd's of London, and Ms Lucie Martel, Human Resources Director of Intact Financial.

The 2021 nomination process will open in November 2020, with applications due in February 2021.

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