James Fitzpatrick has been appointed Chief Technical Officer at Allianz and will take on the role from August.

The news comes after the tragic death of Donna Walker, who formerly held the position. She died suddenly in September just days after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.

Mr Fitzpatrick spent a decade at Suncorp and was most recently Chief Data Officer and GM of Member Solutions at Avant Mutual. He has extensive experience in driving product and performance innovation in the areas of strategy, product management, pricing, underwriting and reinsurance.

He said current unprecedented challenges in the current environment provide “a valuable opportunity for the financial services industry to propel innovation to meet customers’ changing expectations”.