Manulife has appointed Steve Finch as the new president and CEO of its Asia division, effective 9 May 2025.
He will be taking over the role from Phil Witherington, who will take on the position of president and CEO of Manulife globally, also from 9 May.
Currently serving as Manulife’s chief actuary, Finch has been part of the company’s executive leadership team since 2016.
Finch’s contributions include overseeing financial performance transactions that “validated” the company’s reserve practices and aiding the transition to the new IFRS 17 and IFRS 9 accounting standards.
With 32 years of career at Manulife, his expertise spans both functional and commercial aspects of the company operations.
He previously served as the CFO of John Hancock, Manulife’s US business.
Prior to that, he was general manager of the US Life Insurance division.
Manulife president and CEO Roy Gori said: “Steve has helped deliver our transformation and drive strong financial performance, reshaping our portfolio towards higher return and lower risk and validating the prudence of our reserves.
“We have bold ambitions for Asia, and his deep appreciation of our business at a commercial and functional level, strong knowledge of our products and distribution channels across Asia, and passion for leading teams will help accelerate our growth agenda for this critical part of our business.”
Witherington stated: “Steve is a proven leader who has developed our actuarial talent globally into one of the best teams in the industry. He will bring that same approach to supporting our team in Asia, helping us drive high-quality, sustainable growth and achieve our ambition to be the number one choice for customers and contribute more than 50% of Manulife’s core earnings – a goal we are well on track to achieve.”
Manulife noted that the successor for the chief actuary position will be announced in due course, and Finch will collaborate with the new leader.
Manulife Financial reported a net income attributed to shareholders of $5.4bn (C$7.73bn) for 2024, a 5% increase from $5.1bn in 2023.
The Asia segment contributed with $1.8bn in core earnings, a 27% increase, while Canada reported a 5% increase to $1.5bn.
