Diary of an Insurer: Axa’s Chris Walsh

Monday

Monday morning starts like most weekdays, rising early and ensuring my two boys aged 12 and 16 are up and out on time for school. 

Making sure they leave home with everything they need is a challenge. The more I hurry them, the slower they go, but they’re out of the door by 7am so that’s when work starts for me.

I begin by preparing for the week ahead, looking at what internal and external meetings are in my calendar and ensuring I have everything I need. 

Today I’m heading to my local Axa office in Bolton, which is only a 15-minute drive from home, so I set off just after 8.30am to avoid the traffic.

There’s no set pattern to what I do on any day, my week is always varied, but when I’m in the office I try to avoid shutting myself away in a meeting room. 

Hybrid working means we have fewer opportunities for personal connections so I like to chat to my own team, and the wider teams too, bringing some of that old fashioned connection back. 

I ask about their weekends and take time to speak to people on a personal level.

I can be a complete distraction to others when I’m in the office, but I feel it’s important to create relationships with the teams so they can relate to me and have conversations like they would in any setting. 

I don’t want my relationship with them to be dictated by hierarchy. Being approachable and genuine matters.

At least a couple of hours a week are spent in some form of governance meetings covering customer, indemnity or people topics, such as today’s distribution underwriting and trading board. 

A one-to-one follows with one of my six direct reports. I vary these meetings between informal weekly catch-ups and more structured one-to-one discussions every six weeks about their career development and specific challenges they are working through. 

Tuesday

Tuesday is a busy day of meetings, which I cover while working at home. 

Every Tuesday at 9am my senior leadership team and I have a 90-minute pulse call where we get together to talk about pressing issues, challenges and updates. 

This isn’t just a talking shop – it’s a really productive meeting about what we want to get on the management team’s radar and what decisions we need to make. 

Straight after I’m into a customer broker insight forum where we carefully pick through information that comes from a variety of sources including customer insight trends, complaints and broker feedback via branch and customer relationship management systems – another 90 minutes with a broader group of stakeholders that includes risk and supply chain colleagues.

This gives us a sense of what our customers are saying about us, what we are doing well and where our challenges lie. 

We really get into the nitty gritty that tells us whether we’re on the right track to continue delivering good customer outcomes. 

I always carve out time for lunch as it’s important to refuel. Today it’s scrambled egg on a toasted bagel, cooked and eaten during another one-to-one with my team. 

That’s the benefit of having strong relationships with those around you, they’re understanding when you need to multitask!

Tuesday ends with a two-hour risk meeting. It is very common for around 25% of my week to be taken up with talking about risk but it’s not all negative, risk discussions can be about exploring business opportunities too. 

After all, everything we do in insurance is based on risk.

Wednesday

On Wednesday I’m travelling into London for a day at our Gracechurch Street head office. 

No matter what time my meetings are, I always get the 5.45am from Wigan when I’m in London to ensure I can make the most of a full day with colleagues. 

I’m the sponsor of a new claims academy that spans all our UK business units so I spend a couple of hours first thing with the teams reviewing our priorities for this initiative for 2026.

Then there’s a meeting with our employer brand team that features an unexpected interlude - a comedian poking light-hearted fun at us all for working in insurance. 

This is to highlight a new Axa UK advertising campaign that challenges public perceptions of the industry.

The campaign focuses on people not wanting to tell friends and family about their insurance careers for fear of being seen as boring. It’s a fun campaign. Look out for the TV adverts with an underwriter pretending to be a gardener and taking plants to work! 

It’s a great idea to demonstrate the broad diversity of jobs in insurance. There’s huge opportunity for people to pursue a wide variety of careers they may not traditionally associate with the sector. It’s not all middle-aged men in suits anymore! 

I finish the day with another one-to-one, which is nice to do face-to-face in the London office before catching the 6.30pm train back to Wigan, arriving home at 8.30pm. 

Family life is important to me, so I pack everything into one day if possible and come home later rather than stay away overnight when I don’t need too. 

Thursday

Back in the Bolton office today. We have to reserve our desks in advance and when I arrive, one of our new recruits is sitting in the space I’ve booked. 

I just sit somewhere else but the team wind him up that I’ll be really cross he’s taken my desk. Of course, I reassure him I’m not and it’s a great opportunity to engage and have a friendly chat with someone new.

We kick off the day with the monthly claims alignment forum, joining up with colleagues across the wider claims functions to discuss a variety of common topics such as customer, Axa Group activity and fraud strategy. 

It’s important to have these conversations where we explore commonality and learn from each other about things that are transversal in claims.

In insurance, customers are central to everything we do so we’ve always got to be conscious of acting in their best interests. 

In every meeting, the customer is a constant theme, with us putting ourselves in their shoes when considering actions across claims. 

With my team, alongside being focused on the customer, I use the analogy of us constantly juggling three balls that we can’t afford to drop – indemnity and people in addition to customer.

Claims fraud impacts customers significantly. It’s a strategic topic that’s a constant in my diary and is never far from my mind. 

Technology is changing the way we’re able to investigate and respond to fraud – indeed it’s impacting and evolving so many areas of our business. 

That’s what keeps things exciting and interesting for me. There is constant change and new things to integrate and adapt to, hence the need to collaborate with UK and group colleagues too.

Friday 

For once, getting the boys off to school goes like clockwork and I’ve got time for a run before work. 

I did the Manchester marathon last April and I’ve managed to keep up with my running, doing 10K or 12K a few times a week. It’s a great way to free your mind and get out in the open.

I’ve actively worked on being more disciplined about setting aside time to take stock at the end of the week and reflect. 

I build a few slots into my day on a Friday to review actions we’ve agreed and make sure we continue to drive activity to move us forward against our priorities for the year. 

There are broader strategic things to think about too – are we moving in the right direction, are we where we should be on the road map for the coming few years? 

Sometimes you need space to think more strategically and that’s as important to schedule into your diary as all the meetings and catch-ups. 

My personal assistant is invaluable, and my diary is meticulously mapped out six weeks in advance to make sure I’m organised and I’m giving people the support and presence they need, whether that’s my own team or broader stakeholders.

As Friday draws to a close, I can look forward to the weekend and getting out with the boys, especially while they’re at an age when they still want to spend time together. 

They do a lot of sport so I’m always on the sidelines and I make a point of not being on my phone while I’m there. I try my best not to miss a match and if I’m watching them playing football or cricket, I want to be 100% focused.

A friend said recently that I never take time for myself but that’s where I get the most enjoyment, watching the boys growing up and wondering if they’ll follow me into a career in insurance!