Hong Kong’s FWD Group Holdings has hired Tsuyoshi Ijichi from Japanese rival MetLife Insurance K.K. as president and chief executive officer of its Japan unit.
He will succeed Hideki Yamagishi, who will transition to an advisory role at FWD Japan, the Hong Kong insurer says in a statement on January 7. The appointment is effective January 14.
Ijichi was director, representative statutory executive officer and deputy president of MetLife Insurance K.K. He has also worked in leadership positions at General Electric and SanwaBank.
Huynh Thanh Phong, CEO of FWD Group, expressed confidence that under Ijichi, the Hong Kong company will “further scale our Japan business by changing the way people feel about insurance”.
FWD Group had around US$52.67 billion of total assets as of end-2023.