Fifth meeting of AXA Stakeholder Advisory Panel

AXA held the fifth meeting of its Stakeholder Advisory Panel on April 3rd /4th in Paris. Top of the agenda were progress with the group’s Payer to Partner strategy, trends in Global Health Security and Data for Good – using AXA’s data to help tackle important social or environmental issues. The panel also agreed updated terms of reference and welcomed two new members.

Payer to Partner

AXA and panelists discussed progress with the group’s Payer to Partner strategy; AXA outlined current plans in both health and P&C. Discussions also focused on Population Health Management and the potential of worksite marketing. AXA acknowledged the need, in some areas, to develop new products and services that go beyond the traditional insurance model. During the discussion, panelists highlighted the continued importance of customer trust – and in shifting the group’s narrative to focus more on ‘anticipation’.

Data for Good

AXA and the panel discussed the possible social /environmental uses of the group’s data; the discussion stressed data-sharing and working closely with both government and civil society. AXA presented current proposals to ‘return data to customers’, particularly in household and accident insurance. The discussion also addressed potential obstacles, including both the quality and accessibility of current data. Panelists drew a distinction between ‘data for customers’ and ‘data for good’; they urged AXA to focus on select areas where progress can be made quickly, and the group’s data could bring definite social or environmental benefits.

Global Health Security

Steve Davis (panelist, President & CEO of Path) presented current trends in global health security; he pointed to growing inequalities in both public health spending and in health outcomes (especially child mortality rates, and numbers of vaccine-preventable deaths). He said there was a clear opportunity, however, to make progress in this area, given advances in genomics as well as data and mobile technology. AXA has a role to play in this area, panelists agreed; they pointed to the group’s knowledge of risk and understanding of health payment systems. AXA would need to work closely with governments, they said.

Panel membership & governance

Three members have stepped down from the panel since the last meeting in November: Christine Farnish, Erwann Michel-Kerjan and Betty Mwangi. Two new members have subsequently been appointed: Angelien Kemna, Chief Finance & Risk Officer at APG, one of the Netherlands’ leading pension funds (also a member of AXA’s Board), and Maria Ressa, journalist and founder of the newsite rappler.com in the Philippines. These changes are part of a regular rotation in panel membership – a common principle of good corporate governance. AXA’s intention is to change one-third of the panel’s external members every three years; a third appointment is expected in time for the panel’s next meeting in December, completing the first rotation in panel membership. The next rotation is not scheduled until 2020 /2021. The principle of regular rotation in membership is contained in new terms of reference, approved by the panelists at the April meeting. Link to panelists’ biographies

Attendees

Panelists Heng Chee Chan, Steve Davis, Nicholas Eberstadt, Yolanda Kakabadse, Angelien Kemna, Andrew Kuper and Maria Ressa all attended the two-day meeting. On the AXA side, they were joined by CEO Thomas Buberl, George Stansfield (Group General Secretary), Christian Thimann (Group Head of Regulation, Sustainability & Insurance Foresight), Alice Steenland (Group Head of Corporate

Responsibility) and Simon Clow (Group Head of Stakeholder Engagement). AXA Board Chairman Denis Duverne attended the meeting as the panel’s ‘permanent invitee’. The panel was moderated by Aron Cramer, President & CEO of BSR.

Next meeting

As usual, panelists debated possible topics of discussion for the next meeting, scheduled for December. Interest was expressed in the ‘Future of Work’ – both as a social /political phenomenon and as a management issue for AXA. Other proposals included civic engagement /building communities for change among employees and customers.