With the sale of Macquarie Life to Zurich Life due to be completed later this year, two managers from the former have already moved to the new owner.

Daniel Longden will join Zurich as Head of Strategy and Propositions, while Dave Evans becomes National Sales Manager, Retail Risk.

Mr Longden will oversee implementation of strategy and key initiatives, plus proposition management and development of the life and investments portfolios.

Mr Evans will be responsible for driving sales across Zurich’s life insurance product range.

Both will join on October 1, the scheduled date for the sale to be finalised.

Mr Longden has 20 years’ financial services experience, including as Asteron chief actuary before joining Macquarie in 2008.

Mr Evans joined Macquarie in 2010, where he was most recently Queensland state manager, wealth management. He has also held senior business development roles at TAL and MLC.

Zurich Life & Investments CEO Tim Bailey says the new recruits are respected and well-known leaders in the life industry, and bring complementary skills.

“Combining Macquarie Life with Zurich’s existing operations is an opportunity that will shape our business into a leading market competitor,” he said. “These appointments will both balance and bolster the capacity already within Zurich.”