John Hancock Life names new CEO

The John Hancock Life Insurance Corp. has named John D. Casey as the new president and chief executive officer effective Aug. 1. Casey replaces the retired Mike Plaxton.

Casey is an Australian national with 27 years of experience in the life insurance industry, including many years in the Philippines. He was principal consultant and practice leader for NMG Financial Services Consulting, managing projects in the Philippines and across the region.

From 1997 to 1999, Casey was senior vice president of marketing and a director of Colonial Mutual Group (CMG) in the Philippines. Earlier, he worked for CMG in Australia as business development executive, providing marketing support to the company’s life insurance operations in the Philippines and four other Asian markets.

He began his career in 1976 in the Australian life insurance industry, with marketing roles of increasing responsibility at Prudential Assurance, HCF Life Insurance, AMEV Life Insurance, and the National Australia Bank Group.

The new insurance president studied at the International School in the Philippines before going to Australia to earn a Bachelor’s Degree from Macquarie University and, later, an MBA from the University of Technology.

John Hancock Life Insurance Corp. is the Philippine subsidiary of Boston-based John Hancock, one of the world’s largest life insurance companies with $130.4 billion in assets under management as of March 2003, and 141 years of experience. John Hancock also operates in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.