Chief Product Officer — Insurance Distribution Network

The mandate

An institutionally backed insurance distribution network has combined an acquired portfolio with its existing carrier and proprietary propositions. The resulting shelf is broad but lacks clear ownership. Similar products use different customer language and commission structures, local teams request features without lifecycle economics, and no executive can say which offers create active adoption after cancellation, claims service and support cost. The investment committee has withheld further expansion.

The Chief Product Officer will steward approximately AED 4,750 million in assets and investment and lead about 300 employees and material partners. Scope spans product strategy, proposition, lifecycle, pricing, portfolio governance, customer insight and the interfaces with carriers, distribution, technology, operations and risk. The CPO owns complete product consequences, not just launch.

Integration requires an explicit target portfolio. Each product should have a customer problem, segment, owner, economics, service standard, control evidence and retirement hypothesis. The executive will decide which acquired capabilities become core, which converge and which close. Contractual obligations and customer protections must guide migration.

Insurance adoption cannot be measured by policies sold alone. Renewal, cancellation, coverage use, claims support, complaints and distributor effort all matter. Product contribution should include commission, incentive, service, technology and control cost. Carrier arrangements need transparent product governance even when manufacturing sits outside the group.

The CPO will also reset investment gates. Roadmap work should progress only when customer evidence, adoption and delivery capacity justify it. A large shelf is not a strategy.

Product language needs convergence alongside product mechanics. Similar exclusions, benefits and service routes described differently create customer and distributor confusion. The CPO will establish plain, testable proposition standards and ensure comparison remains fair during migration. Changes in wording must trace to contractual substance and cannot be used to disguise a reduction in coverage.

Claims experience should feed lifecycle decisions even where the network does not underwrite risk. Delays, documentation requests and dispute patterns reveal whether the proposition works in the moment customers need it. Carrier data-sharing and governance should make these outcomes visible without blurring manufacturing responsibility.

Legacy ownership will persist after sales stop. Reserves, renewals, complaints, technology and regulatory obligations require a funded run-off plan. The product organisation must maintain accountable expertise until the final customer obligation ends, rather than declaring success when distribution ceases.

Why this seat is open

This urgent replacement follows an accelerated transition. Interim ownership cannot settle post-acquisition portfolio choices, so the board seeks a permanent appointee within six to eight weeks. The process remains confidential until the handover is agreed.

What you will own

• Establish a target portfolio and named accountability for every material proposition.
• Build lifecycle economics across commission, cancellation, service, claims support and technology.
• Steward AED 4,750 million of assets, risk acceptance and forecasts.
• Decide which acquired products to preserve, converge, migrate or retire.
• Govern carrier propositions, pricing, incentives and customer evidence.
• Tie investment to active adoption and explicit stop criteria.
• Lead 300 employees and partners with strong product and market succession.
• Give capital sponsors one coherent portfolio rather than overlapping roadmaps.

The first 12 months

The opening 90 days should reconcile products, owners, contracts, customers, economics and roadmap commitments. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to portfolio coherence, including customers represented through evidence, distributors, carriers, operations, risk and engineers. Test apparent adoption, assess leaders, stabilise material customer risk and agree investment-committee gates.

Months four to nine should publish the target portfolio, begin controlled migrations and stop unsupported work. Fill leadership gaps, reset pricing or carrier terms and establish lifecycle reviews. The first value should appear in adoption, reduced service burden, released roadmap capacity or a safer retirement completed without avoidable attrition.

By year end, portfolio coherence, product economics and customer adoption should improve repeatedly. Delivery must remain within 10% of the approved case, and forecasts should reconcile portfolio, cash, customer and people assumptions for three quarters. Priority risks require independently evidenced closure; no severe escalation may age beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Active use, renewal, retention and lifecycle contribution by proposition.
• Products converged or retired and capacity returned to the strategic shelf.
• Customer outcomes through migration, claims support and cancellation.
• Pricing, carrier and investment decisions changed through complete economics.
• Retention of nine in ten critical product leaders and ready-now cover for seven in ten direct roles.
• Quantified improvement in ownership, supported by clean portfolio data.

The person

You are a Chief Product Officer, Product Line General Manager or Commercial Product Executive with 22–28 years in insurance, financial services or another regulated distribution environment. You have owned material products from evidence and pricing through operation and retirement.

Your accountable P&L, portfolio, book or budget has been at least AED 2,750 million, and you have led 300 or more people. You can evidence a post-acquisition rationalisation whose adoption and economic results held for two reporting periods.

You can challenge distributor enthusiasm, carrier influence and technical attachment while protecting customers whose existing product cannot simply disappear.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is AED 1.9–2.7 million plus annual incentive and LTI. This permanent Dubai role is onsite, supports relocation and can accommodate notice of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The network, acquisition and carrier portfolio will be disclosed only under mutual confidentiality. Composite facts must not be reverse-engineered.