A Samoan national has been appointed to the role of Head of Pacific Retail Distribution with the insurance firm Tower Insurance.

The announcement of Joanne Rasmussen’s appointment was made in a statement issued by the company with the Managing Director Paula ter Brake saying a new digital insurance will be offered early next year and the new appointments were made to ensure there is success. 

The appointment of Ms. Rasmussen as the Head of Pacific Retail Distribution means she will be responsible for leading the company's branch network and physical teams across eight Pacific countries.

“Ms Rasmussen is a Samoan national and brings over a decade of retail and financial services experience into her new role at Tower,” Ms. ter Brake said in the statement.

“She is a strong sales professional with extensive retail banking, people leadership and risk and compliance experience

“Nothing is more important to us than the relationships we build with our customers and Ms. Rasmussen will be responsible for leading our local teams to achieve great customer outcomes.”

Ms. ter Brake said that Ms. Rasmussen’s recent experience at Tower has seen her successfully grow key parts of her portfolio and lead her teams to outperform expectations.

According to the statement, Ms. Rasmussen says that she can’t wait to start working closely with local teams and communities to understand their needs and how Tower can continue making insurance more accessible and easier to understand.

Ms. ter Brake says that the announcement is a clear message that Tower Insurance is committed to supporting customers across the Pacific with easy access to great value insurance. 

“With the backing of a strong and innovative international insurer, Tower New Zealand, we are bringing new products, new pricing and new technology to the Pacific, and that is incredibly exciting," she said.

Tower Insurance has also appointed Fijian national Veilawa Rereiwasaliwa Head of Pacific Digital Distribution.

“Mr. Rereiwasaliwa is a Fijian national and brings extensive leadership and transformation experience,” Ms. ter Brake said.

“Along with successfully leading Tower’s Fiji business for several years, Mr. Rereiwasaliwa’s experience leading multinational financial institutions to transform the way customers interact will enable him to step up into this role and be invaluable to the digitisation programme.”