UNIQA Austria and UNIQA International expand Management Board

• New executive portfolios to be created for future issues of ‘digitisation’ and ‘evolving customer expectations and market requirements’
• Alexander Bockelmann to head up new “digitisation” executive portfolio at UNIQA Austria and UNIQA International, thereby assuming Group-wide responsibility for this area
• Sabine Usaty-Seewald to take on new “customers and markets” portfolio at UNIQA Austria
• Both directors to assume new appointments from 1 January 2018

Following the merger of the four operating companies in Austria and the launch of the extensive innovation and investment programme last year, the UNIQA Group is taking the next organisational step in its journey from being an insurance product provider towards being an integrated service provider from the start of the new year. Alexander Bockelmann will head up the newly created “digitisation” executive portfolio at UNIQA Austria and UNIQA International from 1 January 2018. Sabine Usaty-Seewald will become the director of the also new “customers and markets” portfolio at UNIQA Österreich Versicherungen AG from the same date. The contracts for both Management Board appointments run until 30 June 2020.

Thomas Polak, since 2016 Chief Innovation Officer at UNIQA, has initiated and implemented topics like innovation, disruptive changes and co-operation with start-ups. He also has built up a powerful innovation team. From the very beginning his engagement with UNIQA was assigned temporary. From now on he will provide UNIQA with his deep knowledge and insight as a consultant. Andreas Nemeth from the UNIQA innovation team will take care of the tasks “ventures” activities – specialised in investments in start-ups and their ongoing development.

Alexander Bockelmann

Alexander Bockelmann (*1974), who has a doctorate in environmental sciences, joined UNIQA in 2013 as the Head of Group IT after previously working for the Boston Consulting Group in Munich and at insurance companies in Germany and the US. From the middle of 2016, as the Chief Digital Officer, he was responsible for creating the Group’s new “Digital Team”, which develops the Group’s solutions in the field of mobile apps, customer portals, chatbots and big data. Alexander Bockelmann’s appointment as the Management Board’s Director of Digitisation at UNIQA Austria and UNIQA International marks UNIQA’s even stronger focus on digitisation throughout the Group. In addition to the ongoing development of the digital business model, his Group-wide responsibility also comprises digital cooperations and investment in the digital environment. 

Sabine Usaty-Seewald

The academic insurance clerk Sabine Usaty-Seewald (*1968) studied business at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. After holding management positions in industry and at financial service providers throughout her career, in 2006 she joined the UNIQA Group as the Managing Director of UNIQA Leasinggesellschaft. In 2011 she was made the head of Alternative Sales and, since 2016, has been in charge of Customer and Sales Management. Her new position on the Management Board of UNIQA Austria as the Director of Customers and Markets gives her responsibility for launching products and services on the Austrian market. A key aspect of her work will be which innovative answers and solutions UNIQA Austria can offer its customers in the face of rapidly changing customer expectations and market requirements.