IAG has announced it has appointed Mark Drasutis (pictured above) as chief digital officer to lead its digital strategy and experience team.

Drasutis will have a key leadership role within IAG’s Customer Labs to help build an organisation that is customer-led and data-driven across IAG and its brands, including NRMA Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC and WFI in Australia, as well as NZI and AMI in New Zealand.

He will join the IAG Customer Labs team in mid-October, and will report to chief customer officer Julie Batch.

Drasutis has more than 20 years’ media and digital product experience, and joins IAG from News Corp Australia, where he led its digital product, platform, UXD, audience insights and innovation teams as chief product officer for digital.

Prior to that, he was News Corp’s head of innovation, responsible for transforming the company’s digital and innovation strategy and culture. Drasutis has also held roles at Yahoo! in Europe, the Middle East and Africa/

Batch described Drasutis as an innovator, consumer product expert and strategic visionary who cares deeply about building high-performing teams, working in agile environments and focusing on the needs of customers.

“Under Mark’s guidance, we can accelerate our focus on driving IAG forward to become a leader in digitally-enabled customer experiences,” she said.

Commenting on his new role, Drasutis said: “Digital is now central to insurance services and sets new levels of customer expectations for IAG and its brands to make peoples’ lives safer.

“This opportunity to combine the great teams, data, platforms and technologies at IAG was one I couldn’t miss. I am looking forward to helping set the course for customer-focused growth across all the IAG brands, now and for the future.”

Drasutis’ appointment follows that of former Saatchi and Saatchi New York CEO Brent Smart’s in February 2017 as chief marketing officer within the Customer Labs division. Smart now leads brand portfolio management, marketing strategy and creative for IAG and its brands.