Zurich accelerates focus on health and wellbeing under the leadership of Helene Westerlind

Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) has created a WellCare business to accelerate the Group’s existing health and wellbeing initiatives in markets around the world and apply a global approach to their development. The new business aims to provide retail, SME and commercial insurance customers with unique health and wellness solutions tailored specifically to their needs.

Zurich has appointed Helene Westerlind as Chief Executive Officer of Zurich WellCare to develop and execute the global WellCare strategy and deploy the offering across markets in close alignment with Zurich’s country offices. In addition, she will establish a distribution network by leveraging internal channels and collaborating with external parties.

The flexible and modular WellCare offering will give customers the freedom to choose among core and optional elements, so they can personalize their approach to improving their physical and mental health. The aim is to include features enabling customers to track and assess their activities, ideas on how to get healthier, and, depending on the location, coaching and diagnostics tools, facilitating clinical services to assist in managing chronic conditions, as well as insurance solutions.

“The WellCare business is a perfect example of how Zurich is bringing to life its customer-focused strategy, shifting toward prevention and providing innovative services beyond traditional insurance protection,” Ms. Westerlind said. “Our goal is to empower customers to improve their health and wellbeing, using technology and data in a responsible manner.”

Ms. Westerlind brings a deep understanding of the insurance industry and Zurich’s global businesses to the role. She joined Zurich in Stockholm in 2003 and most recently was Global Head of International Programs within Zurich’s Commercial Insurance business. Ms. Westerlind’s long-standing relationships with brokers and customers position her well to drive the development and growth of this new business.

The Zurich WellCare strategy is based on four pillars:

Prevention: Empowering customers to achieve their health and wellbeing goals by offering customized content, analytics and incentives

Care: Enabling customers to stay healthy and manage certain chronic conditions by providing personalized health and wellbeing services

Protection: Making insurance more relevant by providing improved and new insurance products

Data: Using data in a responsible, secure and transparent manner – in line with Zurich’s data protection commitment – to provide each customer with a unique and personalized experience.

Zurich WellCare will start with a proposition for retail customers and plans to introduce solutions for SME and corporate customers later this year. The retail offerings will be introduced in selected markets in Asia, Latin America and Europe in the coming months.