Leah Cotterill is Chief Distribution Officer (CDO) at Cigna Insurance Middle East and Africa. In this capacity, she leads the MEA market growth teams, oversees local International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI) operations, drives Middle East and Africa’s market development strategy and frames buyer group needs for various segments.

Leah has 20 years of experience in the health and wellness industry. Prior to her current role, she was Chief Operations Officer at Cigna Insurance Middle East (CIME). She was responsible for delivering an operating model that met and exceeded a diverse set of customer and client expectations and enabled the delivery of CIME’s short-, medium- and long-term strategic priorities, as well as for re-aligning the Operations 2020 vision and strategy.

Previously, she led the global client migration to CIME’s new operating model following the acquisition of Zurich Insurance Middle East. In an earlier role, she headed the Client Management Team for Global Health Benefits in North America. Leah joined Cigna in 2008 shortly after the launch of the Middle East business, initially working in sales and then building the client management capability in the region.

Leah Cotterill holds a Diploma in Healthcare Insurance and an Advanced Diploma in Private Medical Insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), in addition to Segment Management Development Program and Leaders for the Future certificates.

Yolande’s career started as a lecturer in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, followed by the College of Medicine in Malawi.

From there, she went on to put theory into practice working on health promotion and behaviour change interventions for several international organisations culminating with almost a decade at the World Bank.

She has worked in more than a dozen countries in Africa and has spent 15 years living in Kenya, and 6 in Malawi.

Throughout her career, her focus has been on utilising evidence to change people’s behaviour individually and collectively. Building on her experience as a seasoned trainer and educator, Yolande retrained as a coach and therapist. She specializes on issues that inhibit performance in the workplace. This includes individual issues such as depression, stress and anxiety, as well as working with poorly functioning teams.

Yolande trained with Marisa Peer voted Britain’s number one therapist, and she is the only qualified Rapid Transformational Therapist in Kenya. Yolande is the author of several books and peer reviewed publications.

Gilles Nyssens leads Cigna’s Africa segment and team and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is responsible for building, managing and enhancing relations within the African continent. This includes taking ownership of a department identified as a growth segment for Cigna and constantly adapting strategy towards an ever changing market.

Within Cigna’s international markets, a dedicated unit focuses on the needs of clients with exposure in Africa. This unit, headquartered in Belgium, has almost 60 years of experience in designing, implementing and managing international group health insurance and employee benefits programmes for international and locally recruited staff from corporate, Intergovernmental (IGO) and Nongovernmental (NGO) organisations.

Gilles is a graduate of Antwerp University and holds a master degree in Economics. He obtained a management degree at Vlerick Management School in Ghent (Belgium). Before working at Cigna, Gilles worked as an auditor specialised in the insurance industry at Ernst & Young and was a client manager at Vanbreda International for partnerships and large corporate accounts before Vanbreda International was acquired by Cigna in 2010.