Aegon Life Appoints Srinidhi Shama Rao As Chief Strategy Officer

Aegon Life, Digital India’s life insurance company, announced the appointment of Srinidhi Shama Rao as Chief Strategy Officer to drive its digital-only strategy and achieve exponential growth. Srinidhi will be reporting to Satishwar Balakrishnan, MD & CEO, Aegon Life, and shall oversee Analytics, Alliances, Marketing, Sales, and Product Innovation. Srinidhi’s appointment enhances the strategic, operational, and business build-out capabilities for the tech-first organization.

The move is part of sweeping changes at the Life Insurer to drive exponential growth and scale to 100 digital distribution partners in 2022. Srinidhi brings deep experience in digital transformation and implementing data-driven strategies from multiple industries and geographies. Over the last decade, he has been helping Fortune500 companies make better decisions using Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Behavioral Economics, Design Thinking, Game Theory, Systems Thinking, and other tools.

Satishwar Balakrishnan, MD & CEO, Aegon Life, commented on the appointment, “We are excited to bring Srinidhi aboard. He will be instrumental in boosting our planning, strategy, and data capabilities so we can revolutionize how life insurance is sold. And he will play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our vision of making every Indian household financially secure. His experience with analytics and AI-driven business strategies will drive business growth.”

Speaking on his appointment, Srinidhi added, “The Customer prefers digital as their primary channel, so it’s exciting to lead Strategy at a company where operations are not run by people but by technology, and an underwriter is not a person but an algorithm. Aegon Life is transforming the way life insurance is distributed and sold. With our next-gen Tech Stack, AI Stack and Agility Stack, we aim to make purchasing an insurance policy as easy as ordering food online; and integrating with a new distribution partner a matter of minutes rather than months”

Alongside Srinidhi’s appointment, there have been several elevations of key personnel to accelerate this growth. The team has been organized around customer segments instead of products. Devichand Lunawat, Mayank Ravi and V Vineeth Kumar, who were handling key portfolios have been elevated to lead cross-functional teams that cater to these customer segments holistically.

In addition to the org changes, Aegon Life has been taking many initiatives to attract tech and analytics talent. It has announced a work-from-anywhere policy that would make it attractive for superior talent located across cities. The agile methodology and goal setting is not restricted to tech teams but followed across the organization. Speaking of the shift, Sunita Rath, Chief People Officer (CPO) at Aegon Life said “our aim is to break functional barriers that exist in traditional companies, create a cross-functional team of thought leaders and designers who can scale business through superior design and best-in-class

technology. Our vision is to make every household in India financially secure, and that is a gigantic goal that can be achieved only through technology