TAL announces dual board appointments

David Cohen will be joining the board on 1 April and later assumes the role of chair from 1 May to replace Mark Joiner, who stood down from the role in late 2024, and take over from Christine Bartlett, who has been operating as interim board chair.

Cohen has 21 years of experience in financial services, 16 of which were spent with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), most recently as deputy chief executive, overseeing business divestments, mergers and acquisitions, and customer complaint resolution and remediation.

However, he also held a number of other positions during his time with CBA, including as group general counsel, group executive human resources, group executive corporate affairs and chief risk officer.

In addition to his responsibilities with TAL, Cohen was recently appointed as an independent non-executive director of Westpac and is a panel member at Adara Partners, an independent corporate advisory firm.

“I’m delighted to be joining the TAL Board and working with CEO Fiona Macgregor and the executive team. TAL is a great Australian business and I look forward to helping guide its future, for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Cohen said.

Furthermore, TAL has expanded its board with the appointment of Annette King as a non-executive director, who commenced in December 2024.

King brings her own wealth of experience to the board with more than 30 years spent as a company director and in several C-suite positions at financial institutions across Australia and the Asia-Pacific, including Swiss Re, AXA, Manulife and Mercer.

On top of her role at TAL, King is currently an independent non-executive director of HCF, Australian Finance Group, and U Ethical Investors.

“Life insurance plays a crucial role in protecting the financial security of Australians. I look forward to contributing to this next phase of TAL’s journey and its focus on customer leadership,” King said.

Interim chair Bartlett welcomed the additions to the board, noting the benefit of having their collective experience on the board.

“David and Annette both bring significant contemporary experience in transformation and growth to the TAL board. As our new chair, we welcome David’s strong emphasis on customer, culture and risk,” she said.

“On behalf of the TAL board and executive team, I thank Mark Joiner for his leadership of the board since June 2022 through a period of significant growth and change.”