Insurer RSA has appointed a trained lawyer as its Director of Marketing & Corporate Affairs as it combines the two areas into one function.
Paul Bickley will head up the function, which brings together brand and marketing with internal communications and engagement, digital communications, external affairs, brand, marketing and social impact and ESG.
Paul has worked at RSA for four years across legal, relationship management and chief of staff roles, but has never formally held a marketing position before in his career.
Before RSA worked at HSBC in its insurance division, as well as in legal roles at AXA.
Writing on LinkedIn, Paul commented that “the adventure and challenge ahead is to support RSA in writing and retaining more of the right business by building and protecting our brand and reputation, both internally and externally, working ever more closely with our Intact colleagues.
“I’m super grateful to who’ve encouraged, challenged and invested in me to take my industry, organisational and operational experience in a new direction.”
The move is a striking one in terms of what it suggests about the business’s perception of marketing – as much about reputation management as about more holistic brand awareness activity. Previous holders of the top marketing role at RSA have included Pete Markey, for example, now CMO of Boots, who made his name through big brand campaigns.
