Singapore – Manulife in Asia has appointed Phil Witherington, most recently the group chief financial officer, as its new chief executive officer. Through this role, the current Manulife Asia CEO Damien Green will now chair the Manulife Financial Asia board.
Witherington will continue reporting to Roy Gori, president and CEO of Manulife, and remain on Manulife’s executive leadership team.
Before joining Manulife in 2014, Mr. Witherington was the Asia-Pacific head of finance for retail banking and wealth management at HSBC. He also held finance roles at AIA and was a financial services specialist at KPMG.
Speaking on the new leadership team changes, Gori said, “Phil has helped strengthen our solid financial foundation as we enter the next stage of our journey. We have bold ambitions for Asia and Phil’s deep appreciation of our team, market, and opportunity across the region will help accelerate our growth agenda for this critical part of our business.”
He added, “I’d like to thank Damien for his leadership of Manulife Asia this past year and our Hong Kong business before that. Throughout his tenure, his commitment to our customers, team and agents has helped secure our competitive position across the region.”
With Witherington leaving his chief financial officer position, Manulife has also appointed Colin Simpson to take over said position.
