As Regional Officer, Roberto Leonardi oversees Generali Asia’s insurance operations in both Life and Property & Casualty businesses. Rob has 25 years of experience in Life and Health businesses across Asia, Europe and South Africa.

Prior to joining Generali, he was with AXA Asia where he was responsible for Health & Employment Benefits, Protection, Marketing, Digital and Big Data. Before AXA Asia, Rob worked at Munich Reinsurance where he was Regional Head of the Munich Health overseeing the health reinsurance and insurance businesses with specific focus on Greater China, India, Indonesia and Japan.

He also spent 13 years with UnitedHealth International (a listed Fortune 25 company) where he held several executive positions including Executive Vice President & CEO of UnitedHealth Asia, CEO of Portugal and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer in its joint ventures. During his tenure, he turned around the Asia business and was actively involved in M&A activities in various markets across Asia.

Rob started his career as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in South Africa. Born in Italy, Rob grew up in Denmark and South Africa and currently lives in Hong Kong.

Fabrice Benard is responsible for steering the transition and integration of our MPI Generali business unit in Malaysia.

With over 15 years of experience, Fabrice brings on board deep technical and strategic experience in P&C retail, actuarial, risk management, financial, bancassurance and M&A. He has worked in Europe and the Gulf in a variety of roles with AXA, Credit Agricole, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Zurich.

Born in France, Fabrice speaks fluent English, French and Italian.

Nick brings with him a wealth of experience having spent more than 13 years in the insurance industry. He has worked in both regional and country roles in Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Dubai and UK.

Nick started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London after graduating from Bradford University (UK) with a degree in Business and Management Studies. He is an ACA qualified accountant.

Jan Colle is responsible for all legal, regulatory and corporate affairs in Asia. This encompasses M&A and financing transactions, antitrust proceedings, litigation and intellectual property related matters.

With over 20 years’ experience in the insurance, service and legal industries, Jan has wide experience in negotiating, structuring and drafting relevant agreements, providing business oriented advice and managing teams in both developed and emerging markets.

Before joining the team in Asia, Jan spent 5 years with Europ Assistance (part of Generali Group) as Group General Counsel & Head of Compliance, based in Paris; where he led a team of over 30 lawyers and compliance officers worldwide.

Jan also held senior management roles at Foncière des Régions - a listed real estate investment group in France - and Ipsos, a listed international market research group. Before that, he was with Ashurst and Van Bael & Bellis law firms in Paris and Brussels respectively.

Charles Descure drives the Regional Finance activities across our Asian markets since July 2020. He brings over 23 years’ experience in insurance and investment, mostly in Europe. 

Prior to moving to Asia, Charles held various positions within the Generali Group. To name a few, he was a member of the enlarged executive committee of Generali France between 2017 and 2019 in charge of financial topics, Chief Investment Officer for Iberia, Benelux, Greece & UK companies based in Milan, Italy, from 2014 to 2016 and Managing Director of the Generali Private Equity Investment division, in Cologne, Germany for two years.

From 2007 to 2010, Charles was a board member of the French Actuarial Profession where he contributed to the publication of highly technical research articles on ALM and solvency II. He also published a book on Value and Risk Management.  

Charles holds a Master of Finance, an MBA and is a fully qualified actuary.

Neil Gardner is responsible for Marketing, Branding and Communications, Digital and Analytics, and integrating Operations as part of the overall customer experience.

Neil has over 25 years of extensive experience in the Banking and Insurance industries especially in customer centric roles, having worked with GE Money, Citibank and AIG in Asia. His career has a focus on a broad range of Marketing and Customer insights roles with significant experience in Direct Marketing.

Neil started his career in the UK in the retail and finance industry; and holds a Mathematics and Computer Science degree from De Montfort University in the UK.

Gurpreet has significant experience and expertise in driving human capital initiatives to support business strategies achieved through organizational transformation and restructuring backed by effective change management. This is supported through leadership development, talent and succession management, strategic workforce planning and data analytics to deliver outstanding results.

She draws from a corporate experience of over 25 years spanning Corporate Finance and Human Resources in India and the Asia Pacific region across global organisations like Telstra, HSBC, ABN Amro and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Prior to a career in HR, Gurpreet has over 14 years of experience in Corporate Finance in GE Capital, Lazard and ANZ. Due to her background in Finance, she has a strong commercial focus and an unique ability to navigate and translate HR policies to support business priorities. Based in Hong Kong and having worked in regional and global roles for the past 11 years, she is extremely comfortable working in a matrixed, multicultural environments.

Liana Radu is responsible for steering all compliance activities in Asia and directly manages the Hong Kong local compliance team. 

Liana has over 12 years’ experience with Generali in Europe and Asia. This includes five years at the global headquarters in Italy, over three years with the regional team in Hong Kong and four years in local Offices such as Hong Kong and Thailand.

Liana’s areas of expertise include risk and process assessments, set-up of controls frameworks, second level controls, preparing internal policies and procedures based on external regulatory requirements and best practices, anti-financial crime programs (i.e. AML, International Sanctions), distribution compliance, Code of Conduct and promoting the compliance culture.

Liana holds a master’s degree in Insurance and Risk Management from MIB School of Management in Trieste, Italy. She grew up in Romania and speaks English and Italian fluently. 

Axel Roesner is responsible for strategy execution, profitable growth and development of the corporate and commercial business across Asia. His team is serving corporate clients, and the ecosystem around them, helping their businesses succeed, and offering them a seamless experience through value-added services and industry expertise.

Axel has over twelve years of insurance industry experience in leading strategy execution, business development and operational excellence. In his previous role, Axel led Operations, IT and business transformation for the corporate and commercial segment across Asia.

Prior to joining Generali, Axel was with Zurich where he held various senior roles in Pricing & Analytics and Underwriting operations. Axel started his career in asset management. He holds an MBA in International Business from California School of International Management and is a certified Lean Black Belt.

Luis Roset is responsible for steering the strategic growth and development of our Life and Property & Casualty business in Asia.

With over three decades of industry experience, Luis has extensive strategic and technical expertise in P&C Retail, financial, actuarial and risk management. He has held senior leadership roles at Generali España, where he was Chief Technical Officer, and most recently, Chief Insurance Officer. Luis also spent two years as Chief Insurance Officer for Generali Portugal.

Luis speaks Spanish and English and understand Portuguese.

As Regional Head of IT, Dipak Sahoo drives the implementation of IT strategies in Asia, identifying synergies between countries to improve customer experience effectiveness.

Dipak has over 20 years’ experience in the insurance sector. He spent most of his career with global insurance companies in senior leadership roles in the areas of technology, operations and transformation across APAC and Europe.

Prior to joining Generali, Dipak worked for Capgemini, a global consulting firm, where he played a significant role setting up their insurance practice across the APAC region. Dipak has also worked in technology leadership roles with global insurers like AXA and AIA in their country and regional operations.

Dipak started his career in India and over the last 10 years lived and worked in Hong Kong, Australia and Italy.

Umberto is responsible for addressing, coordinating and monitoring internal audit activities, as well as conducting business and IT audits on group companies and branches across Asia. Prior to joining Generali, Umberto worked for a major Italian commercial bank in different capacities in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Italy and UK.

As Regional Head of Health, Dr Hak Hong Soo is responsible for strengthening Generali’s Health business in the market and accelerating its leadership presence in Asia.

Prior to joining Generali, Dr. Soo was working with Munich Re in various senior management positions in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Dr Hak Hong Soo also worked for direct insurance companies in Singapore and Indonesia, and held important actuarial roles including being the Chief Actuary of PT AJ Sequis Life in Indonesia.

With over 20 years’ experience in both life and health insurance and reinsurance, Dr Soo has a diverse regional exposure especially focusing on Greater China, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia markets. Dr. Soo studied at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA with a Ph.D. degree in Economics and Insurance, and he is an Associate Member of Society of Actuaries.

John Spence is responsible for formulating and executing mergers & acquisitions (M&A), fostering strategic alliances and partnerships, as well as leading regional corporate development initiatives for Generali Asia.

With over 30 years of experience, John has deep and practiced expertise in developing insurance business, executing acquisitions and forming partnerships. A seasoned executive, John has led a range of financial services businesses in Australia, Canada and Asia.

Prior to joining Generali, John founded and was Managing Director of Asian Capital Advisors, an independent strategic advisory firm for Asian cross border insurance and asset management transactions.

Steve joined Generali Employee Benefits in September 2018 as Director for the Asia Pacific region. Over the last 20 years, Steve had held various management positions in insurance companies across different countries in the Asia Pacific region, covering both life and health businesses.  

Steve is an Associate member of the Society of Actuaries. He spent the early part of his life in Malaysia before going to Canada for his tertiary education. He remained in Canada for a number of years before returning to Asia.