2022 Women to Watch Awards Americas EMEA
Florence Tondu-Mélique CEO
Zurich France, a unit of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd.
Paris
Florence Tondu-Mélique has always liked tackling tough problems and working with people to transform businesses, and she’s pursued those opportunities throughout her career.
On joining McKinsey & Co., graduating from HEC Paris and Harvard Business School, one of her first assignments was in insurance and financial services, and she developed her expertise in the sector.
“It’s a fantastic industry, as it’s a wonderful observatory of the evolution of societies and economies,” she said.
With expertise in growth strategies and strategic transformation, she joined Axa SA in 2007 to help navigate its real estate and investment management business through the financial crisis.
In 2013, she moved to Hiscox Ltd. to help the London-based insurer “crack” continental Europe. She led the business across 10 countries and accelerated growth.
In 2017, she was recruited to join Zurich with the mission to “wake up the sleeping beauty” that was Zurich France.
After spending the first six months meeting and listening to Zurich staff, clients and business partners, she developed a strategy concentrating on the insurer’s core strengths of technical and service excellence, and its international footprint, reengaging the insurer’s staff, and simplifying and transforming the way the company operated. Since 2018, Zurich France’s operating profit has increased by 60% a year.
In transforming the business, Ms. Tondu-Mélique often has developed people who had been performing poorly, rather than always replacing them, said Neil Freshwater, Dublin-based CEO of Zurich Insurance PLC, the insurer’s legal entity for Europe.
“What she’s done is fairly systematically turned the people around, and what I like is that she’s done that through a mix of replacing and developing,” he said.
She has also worked to increase diversity. The insurer’s executive committee has equal representation from men and women, and 60% of management is female. In addition, 80% of trainees come from a diverse background, including gender, ethnicity, social background and disabilities.
“I’m very conscious about unconscious bias, and I’m trying to fight that by not only driving awareness of people but implementing the right policies and processes,” she said.
