Women will only reach the top if we raise our boys not to be sexist… AXA leader Tara Foley: I want my son to support his partner’s career – like his father supports mine

Women have made great strides in the once male-dominated world of insurance. Aviva, the FTSE 100’s biggest insurer, is led by Amanda Blanc, one of the City’s most respected bosses. Admiral is run by Milena Mondini de Focatiis. Even Lloyd’s of London, the venerable insurance market, has had a female leader, Inga Beale.

The new lady in question is Tara Foley, 53, who became CEO of French giant Axa in the UK and Ireland last fall.

When asked how she made it to the top of Axa, one of Europe’s largest insurance companies, she jokes: ‘I dreamed of working in insurance, just like every young girl.’

The reality is that she started out wanting to be a psychologist, and moved through consulting and banking into insurance, primarily at Lloyds Banking Group, before joining Axa as head of retail in the middle of the pandemic.

Foley, the second of five children, was born in Dublin and had a strong role model in her mother, who she says “founded the first female branch of the Fianna Fail political party”. Her advice for other women looking to reach the top is to find “great mentors” – and if you see someone you admire, don’t be afraid to ask them to take on the role.

‘Deborah McWhinney was on the board of Lloyds, she was a real spark of talent. I saw her speak and asked her to be my mentor,’ she says. ‘I was daunted, but you have to be brave.’

How did she, as a mother of a 12-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, manage to balance work and family? Spreadsheets hanging all over the house, and lots of them, is the answer.

“Who’s in charge of all the planning? Well, now. Both of us, me and my husband,” she says, adding that for women who want a partner, choosing a supportive partner is vital.

“I’ve been very lucky. He’s supportive and not competitive. We’re a team. We’re not focused on traditional roles.”

After being appointed CEO, she called a family meeting.

“I had to explain that I was going to miss things at school,” she says. There are sacrifices involved.

“The positive side is that my children see that their mother can be successful in a career. That is not only important for my daughter, but also for my son. I want him to support a partner in the future.”

An unexpected moment occurred during the pandemic when she had a job interview for Axa in a local park, where she had to maintain the necessary social distancing.

“Out of the corner of my eye I saw my daughter, then six years old, hanging upside down from a tree. That was interesting because she had promised not to do that again,” she says.

One of the pitfalls she has seen female leaders fall into is trying to support staff who are not suited for the job.

“It’s something I’ve seen women do a lot over the years. If you have someone on your team who’s not performing, you step in and do their part. So you try to do their job and your own job. I see it as a feminine trait to want to help, but in these cases you’re not doing anyone a favor.”

Foley certainly has more than enough to do in her own role, having taken over at a challenging time, with the change of government and the cost of living crisis.

She is responsible for implementing Axa’s new strategy, improving the profitability of the healthcare and retail divisions and overseeing the digital transformation.

Attracting older workers to the company is part of her vision.

“People can have fantastic and rewarding careers in this industry. It’s very rewarding. We haven’t always been good at communicating that,” she says. “We need to tap into talent in the over-50s across all industries. Talented people shouldn’t be thrown on the scrap heap.

‘Climate risk is particularly interesting to us. Since September, we’ve had 11 named storms. That’s unheard of. We used to call them one-offs, but we can’t do that anymore. We’re investing a lot, we’re involved in discussions with governments about resilience, adapting buildings and building in a more resilient way.’

This all sounds like it will probably mean higher premiums. But, says Foley, Axa tries to keep policies affordable so people aren’t forced to cut back on essential cover.

“We use technology to be as efficient as possible. Artificial intelligence has been used in the industry for years,” she says. “We have a tool called Alfred, because he’s a butler. He helps our agents by giving them quick answers when they call a customer. He’ll search through a plethora of things and the staff checks his answers.

‘Prevention, so that people don’t have to make a claim in the first place, is really important. For example, in car insurance, we’re talking to manufacturers and governments about road safety and vehicle safety. And we want to make sure that the supply chain for repairs is in order, which keeps costs and premiums down.

Foley is responsible for a new strategy called ‘unlock the future’, which was unveiled earlier this year by Axa’s CEO, Thomas Buberl, and runs until 2026.

The strategy focuses on boosting core activities, achieving higher financial targets and a new capital management policy, with plans to return dividends to shareholders at least as high as the previous year. There are commitments to help the transition to green energy and financial inclusion.

The main Axa group has made a series of acquisitions, including the £11bn takeover of Bermuda-based XL Group in 2018.

Foley says, “We’ve made some significant acquisitions. So now it’s time to consolidate that.

‘Then we focus on our role in society in a broader sense. A good example is what we call inclusive insurance. Where entire sectors of society are uninsured or underinsured, we think about how we can offer products and services at the right price.’

She mentions Moja, a digital insurance product she launched as head of retail: “You can really customize it, so it’s great value. We’re also looking at home insurance for renters. They’re typically underinsured. Younger renters might only want to insure a few valuables.

“People’s needs change as society changes, and one-size-fits-all policies don’t fit all. In health, there may be opportunities around diagnostics and early prevention.”

Axa is the UK’s number two health insurer, after Bupa. Demand has skyrocketed since the pandemic, she says, adding: “Before Covid, we were doing about 17,000 GP consultations a month on our digital health app. Now it’s 55,000 a month.”

She wants to expand health insurance for people who are past retirement age. “Most health problems arise when we are older,” she says.

Another of Foley’s pet projects is purging policy of jargon and endless incomprehensible nonsense.

“We want to rationalise the terms of policies to make them consistent,” she says, pointing out that at Moja: “The slogan is ‘jargon, jog on!’ We are looking at how we can apply it to other products.”

Foley says: ‘Insurance is at the forefront of the really big issues: AI, climate change and the ageing population. People say it’s boring, but nothing could be further from the truth.’

Foley from AXA, 53: tree hugger, music lover

Family: Husband Will and two children.

Education: University of Dublin.

Career: Senior positions at Accenture, Deutsche Bank and Lloyds.

Hobbies: Travel, criminology and nature – ‘I once hugged a tree!’

Guests for a fantasy dinner: Naturalist Sir David Attenborough, writer Oscar Wilde, Serbian-American pioneer of electricity Nikola Tesla and Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who was also the lover of Soviet leader Leon Trotsky.

Fantasy journey: A music tour through the US including Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans.