Google veteran Barney Pierce has been appointed Senior VP President of Partnerships Asia Pacific at Cover Genius.

The Sydney-based executive has worked at Google for more than 16 years, most recently as Director Marketing Platforms Australia & New Zealand.

Co-founded by Chris Bayley – a first employee in Google's Sydney office where he managed the insurance team – and CEO Angus McDonald, Cover Genius is now licensed in more than 60 countries and has been valued as high as $1 billion.

Mr Pierce says he is “thrilled to be part of an incredible global insurtech business at an exciting stage of growth”.

“I’m delighted to share that I’ve joined Chris Bayley, Angus McDonald and the amazing team at Cover Genius to build strategic partnerships and help scale the business in APAC,” he said.

Partnerships heads for the US and Europe were also appointed.