New face as Protecta sharpens focus

Shannon Beech has been appointed general manager of intermediated and agency business at Protecta Insurance.

She takes on the role from the start of May as the company aims to put a greater focus on the two main parts of its business – direct sales and those through dealers.

Beech joins the company from Oxford Finance where she has been national sales and marketing manager for three-and-a-half years.

At the same time, Bart Taylor is making an internal move at Protecta to become head of direct and chief customer officer.

Phil Hibbert, chief executive officer of Protecta, says he has been working with the company’s board to bring forward changes to the business. 

“Over the more recent years we have enjoyed strong growth via our renewable products whilst our traditional single-term products – motor vehicle breakdown, payment protection, guaranteed asset protection – only sold via the agency business have experienced more modest but still profitable growth,” he explains.

“It has become more important that specific and dedicated effort is applied to both the profitability of our renewable motor book and the development of our direct distribution channel, and with our recent service model change to the dealer/agency business it is important that we also grow and dedicate specific effort to this our primary distribution channel.

“With this focus in mind, we have decided to position the business whereby responsibility of these two areas will be owned by two new roles.” 

He adds that Beech will have a “significant impact” in the tactical and strategic positioning of the dealer distribution channel and help the company to focus on more growth.

Beech has held senior roles in finance and insurance within the automotive industry for many years and says she is excited and looking forward to a new challenge.

“It’s an opportunity in getting some growth for the company and helping it on that journey,” she explains.

“It’s a similar opportunity to when I arrived at Oxford Finance and how far that business has come since. Doing something similar for someone else definitely appeals to me.

“What I enjoy about a role like this and ones I have had over the years is building relationships and taking them to a level where they become mutually beneficial. Creating partnerships doesn’t work if there’s only something in it for one party.”

Building relationships

Beech’s other previous roles include being chief executive officer at Marac Insurance, part of Heartland Bank, from December 2015 to August 2017.

She was a regional sales manager at Vero Insurance for nearly two years, where her main responsibility was under the Autosure brand as well as managing the non-automotive book of insurance business.

Before that she worked as an account manager at Vero in Auckland for more than a decade, which also included a two-year stint as the company’s area manager for Waikato.

She says she is keen to help dealers get access to the Protecta products they need and are suitable for their customers.

“One of my strengths is building relationships,” she adds. “I enjoy working with and being a part of a strong company culture and I’m hoping I can extend that beyond my team and form new relationships with clients in the field.”

She notes the automotive industry, and in particular finance, has been surprisingly buoyant since the Covid-19 pandemic struck last year because people unable to travel offshore have instead spent money on upgrading cars and homes.

“We’ve been very lucky in New Zealand with cars, finance and insurance given that coming out of level four last year a number of people were concerned about what the position would be like and would we have jobs by Christmas. 

“We have bounced back quite readily and if the biggest problem in the automotive industry is getting stock then clearly things could have been far worse.”