MLC Life Insurance has appointed Michael Rogers as Chief Life Insurance Officer, replacing Sean McCormack who took on the newly created role last year and will leave the business on February 26.

Mr Rogers’ appointment was announced last month, days after majority shareholder Nippon Life and minority stake owner NAB revealed another round of capital injection to shore up the business.

In another new appointment made last week, Rick Wingfield has been named Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer. He takes over from Tahir Tanveer, who took on the role in an acting capacity.

Mr Rogers started last month, reporting directly to CEO Rodney Cook. He leads the Life Insurance Team, overseeing the group and retail distribution channels, underwriting, operations, pricing, product, brand and marketing units.

He has worked previously for Axa in Australia and the UK as well as AMP. He was also GM for Insurance at QSuper fund, where he led the design and implementation of its start-up insurance company, QInsure.

“[His] appointment, in addition to the recent capital injection from Nippon Life and NAB, demonstrates that we are on the right path, despite the fast-changing operating environment we face,” Mr Cook said.

“While we acknowledge that we have work to do to rebuild positive relationships with our advice partners after our service deteriorated following the recent technology upgrade, we are confident that, once overcome, we will deliver a superior service over time.

In the latest round of capital injection announced in December, Nippon Life and NAB will put in a combined $650 million into MLC Limited, the entity operating MLC Life Insurance.

The business has received a few capital injections from Nippon Life since the Japanese insurer acquired its 80% holding in 2016 from NAB, which retained a 20% stake. In June last year the partners put in $400 million to support the insurer.

Mr Cook says the $650 million capital will be deployed to grow the business, not just making provisions for COVID-19 impacts.

“It sets us up to survive and thrive in the coming post-pandemic environment,” Mr Cook said. “It provides real security of policyholder benefits, meaning we will continue to deliver on the promises we make to our customers and business partners.”

“This additional capital also supports our strategic goals. These include playing a larger role in the group insurance market, developing the industry’s leading claims function, and making it more efficient for advisers and superannuation funds to provide insurance to their customers through the use of technology.”

The $650 million capital injection comprises of $530 million in ordinary equity issue and Tier 2 capital notes of $120 million. Nippon Life and NAB will back the equity issue according to their respective shareholdings in MLC Life and the Japanese insurer is the sole subscriber of the Tier 2 capital notes.