Dual bolsters Asia Pacific leadership; plots growth through acquisitions

Dual Asia Pacific has bolstered its leadership team with two key appointments to support its plans for growth through acquisitions and new initiatives.

Michael Ussher (pictured) has been appointed deputy CEO, with Jane Cullen taking on the role of chief information officer for the region.

Cullen and Ussher have been with Dual since 2005 and 2006, respectively. In his new role, Ussher will be responsible for delivering the leadership team’s business plans while Damien Coates, CEO, Dual Asia Pacific focuses on growth through acquisitions and other new initiatives.

Dual said the move reflects its goal to attract, nurture and retain the best talent in the industry.

Coates said “We’re absolutely thrilled to announce these promotions. Both Michael and Jane joined DUAL shortly after we established our Australia business in 2004. In that time, they have both made invaluable contributions to our growth and today we are an A$350m organisation with ambitions to grow significantly over the next five years in both Australia and New Zealand.

“Leo Abruzzo, and I, as founders of DUAL Australia, could not be more thrilled to promote Michael and Jane to these key positions on our leadership team. They both embody the culture of Dual, which fosters an entrepreneurial approach focused on delivering better client outcomes. We have all worked very closely for quite some time so these promotions reflect a business structure that was already happening organically.”

Abruzzo, managing director, Dual Asia Pacific, added: “As CIO, Jane has responsibility for the management of all operating systems and technology. Jane has been instrumental in our recent WebRater platform upgrade, which has delivered 12,000 new business policies and 40,000 renewal policies since its launch. In his role as Commercial Manager, Michael has already helped to drive exponential growth of our business, as Deputy CEO he will be responsible for successful execution of our growth strategy.”

Ussher commented: “First and foremost, Dual are focused on strengthening our product offering to our brokers partners across the region. I’m excited to be taking on a broader role to ensure we continue providing outstanding service to brokers and innovating across products and platforms, as we have done for the last 18 years. As a $350m premium business we need to ensure we are transacting business in the most efficient way possible and making brokers lives easier so if you have feedback, we’re listening.”

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