Manulife has announced the appointment of Pankaj Banerjee as its new chief distribution officer in Asia, effective today.

Banerjee joins the Asia Division Executive Committee reporting to Anil Wadhwani, chief executive officer of Manulife Asia. He will also be a member of the company’s global leadership team.

In this role, he will focus on strengthening Manulife’s bancassurance capabilities by growing, developing and digitising its agency force across Asia markets.

He succeeds Vibha Coburn, who currently serves as the CEO of Manulife Malaysia.

Prior to his appointment, Banerjee was the CEO of Prudential Life Assurance Cambodia for almost four years before switching to AIA. There, he served as CEO for AIA Sri Lanka, where he led business transformation initiatives and developed a full-time agency model.

"Pankaj is highly regarded in the insurance industry for his work on expanding and deepening distribution, while driving solid results," Wadhwani said. "His vast experience will help further progress our digitisation and growth ambitions within our agency force and bancassurance partnerships across Asia, fulfilling our commitment to make the lives of millions more customers every day better."