Insurance giant RSA appoints first group chief digital officer

Digital and multi-channel director Ian Hood promoted to new role

Global insurer RSA has promoted its digital and multi-channel director Ian Hood to the new role of group chief digital officer.

Hood will be responsible for setting the group's global digital strategy across design, technology, data analytics and digital marketing. He will also have joint accountability with the digital directors in the group's core regions of UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Canada and Latin America for the delivery of regional plans.

Hood will report directly to RSA's group CIO, Darren Price.

Hood joined RSA in October 2011 as group digital director. He remained in the role for nearly three years before becoming group digital and multi-channel director in March 2014.

He has been in the insurance industry for more than a decade with stints at Direct Line, RBS and Morethan.

RSA CIO Price said he was pleased to have appointed Hood to his team.

"Digital technology plays a prominent role in our customers' lives and to be successful we must ensure that our services and products are simple and easy to use across all the channels our customers want to interact with," he said.

"We've achieved a lot in recent years with mobile optimisation, e-trading and the launch of telematics products but there is more to do. This appointment highlights the increased importance of digital to the future success of RSA and will enable greater alignment between IT and digital and ultimately provide a better service to our customers," he added.

Hood said he was looking forward to working across the group in an attempt to "build a best-in-class function which will ensure we remain at the forefront of technology and continue to provide products and services that our customers want".