Momentum Metropolitan Holdings has appointed Jeanette Marais as its first woman CEO. Marais has been the group's deputy CEO since 2018. Picture: MMH.Marais has been the group's deputy CEO since 2018.
Her appointment comes almost a year after the only other woman CEO in the insurance sector, Lizé Lambrechts, retired in July 2022. But Lambrechts, who once headed Sanlam's biggest business unit, Sanlam Personal Finance, only ascended to the highest seat when she moved to Santam, the group's short-term insurance arm.
In their first year, Meyer and Marais, who were swiftly brought back to their former home from other companies as CEO and deputy CEO, reported the worst financials MMH had ever seen, as earnings tanked 12%. But the worst performance was the new business margin, which shrank to just 0.7%, meaning that the insurer was barely making a profit on newly sold policies. Meanwhile, peers like Sanlam boasted margins of more than 2%.