Zurich Financial Services has appointed David Wainwright as chief risk officer for Australia and New Zealand.

He is currently chief risk officer for the insurer’s life business in Britain and will move to Sydney to take over the role from Jaimie Sach, who is retiring. Mr Sach joined Zurich as risk chief in 2019 following the insurer’s purchase of ANZ’s life business.

Mr Wainwright will start the new role on January 6. He has almost 25 years’ experience in financial services and has held risk management and leadership roles at Zurich, Nomura Securities, Halifax Bank of Scotland, and HSBC Global Banking and Markets.

“[He] brings a strong breadth of global experience to this role, paired with an impressive technical and leadership capability,” Australia and New Zealand CEO Justin Delaney said. “He will play a key role in driving Zurich’s local risk strategy [in] an increasingly complex environment.”

Mr Wainwright will report to head of risk Asia-Pacific Sid Medappa.