GARANCE WATTEZ-RICHARD

CEO, AXA EMERGING CUSTOMERS

Garance is CEO of AXA Emerging Customers, a business she founded in 2016 that aims to protect the un(der)served populations, from low to middle income, across Emerging Markets - and increasingly in Mature ones. This growing, profitable business covered 23 million people as of end 2020. She has been working for AXA in a variety of capacities, ranging from Executive Assistant to the AXA IM CEO, to Global head of AXA IM Research Marketing and AXA Group Head of External Communications. Amongst other initiatives, shelaunched the SheForShield report in partnership with the IFC & Accenture, the first industry report of its kind to highlight the significant opportunity for the insurance industry of better protecting women, across income brackets and geographies. She previously worked for strategy consultancies and multilateral organisations such as the UN, the EBRD and the European Commission. 

She holds a BA in Finance & Management from the Université Paris IX Dauphine (MSG), an MSc in Economics & International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE - MSc Politics of the World Economy), another from Sciences PO. Paris in Economics (DEA Economie Appliquée) and an MBA from INSEAD. She sits on the Boards of Axa France, the Bharti AXA JVs in India and Baobab (ex-MicroCred) a leading African Micro-Finance Institution.

Garance is the winner of the first Women in Insurance Award of the Geneva Association, and a WEF Schwab Foundation Innovation awardee.