Zurich has appointed Anne Torry as head of its life business in the UK, and CEO of Zurich Assurance plc and Sterling Investment Managers Limited.

Ms Torry, who has been with Zurich since 1995, will take up her new role on 1 July 1. She will be based in Swindon and will report to UK head Vibhu Sharma.

For the last five years she has been managing director of the public sector insurance arm of Zurich’s UK General Insurance business (UKGI).

She takes over from Jim Sykes, who has been interim CEO since Gary Shaughnessy left in January to become CEO Zurich Global Life. Mr Sykes will return to his role as UK Life chief operating officer.

Mr Shaughnessy said: “I’m delighted to announce Anne’s appointment as head of UK Life, and that we have been able to recruit into this challenging role from Zurich’s strong internal talent pool.”

“Her leadership experience in the UK market, combined with her background running both businesses and functions within them, make her the ideal choice.”

Ms Torry said: “I’m joining UK Life at a very exciting time as it faces all the opportunities and challenges in the market driven by both customer demand and regulatory and Government changes.

“I look forward to working with the business’s excellent and experienced team, and with our intermediaries, to continue developing new solutions to meet our customers’ needs within this complex market place.”

Her replacement as Zurich Municipal managing director will be Andrew Jepp, who has been with Zurich for 22 years and is currently her deputy and director of public sector.