Rose St Louis is leaving Scottish Widows after five years leading the insurer at the end of March 2026.
She will be succeeded by Kate Lyons in both roles, who will join from Munich Re where she has been head of alternative distribution since January 2024.
St Louis joined Scottish Widows’ parent Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) as head of protection in March 2021 from KPMG and was appointed CEO of its digital direct to consumer platform Cavendish Online in November of the following year ahead of LBG completing the £12m acquisition of Cavendish Online in December 2022.
Announcing her departure from her LinkedIn account, St Louis (pictured) revealed she would be taking on a new challenge at the end of March next year.
St Louis is also former head of strategic partnerships at Zurich.
In a statement sent to Health & Protection, Jeremy Ward, insurance director at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Rose has been instrumental in shaping and strengthening our protection business, and we wish her every success as she takes on her next challenge. At the same time, we’re excited to welcome Kate Lyons, who will lead the next phase of our growth journey.”
Redesigning protection proposition
Among her achievements at Scottish Widows, St Louis picked out the redesign of its protection proposition and growing market share as well as re-establishing the Scottish Widows brand in protection.
She also pointed to the building and launch of the insurer’s income protection product and bringing Cavendish Online into Lloyds Banking Group to support protection conversations with banking customers.
Further achievements St Louis referred to included integrating protection into the mortgage meetings creating an integrated Home Buying Journey for bank mortgage customers and embedding partnerships such as its alliance with Macmillan Cancer Support, alongside Square Health, RedArc and the Income Protection Task Force (IPTF).
Business as usual until March
“On a personal note, this chapter has been one of the most fulfilling of my career,” St Louis continued.
“It’s taught me the power of collaboration, resilience, and bold thinking, and it’s reminded me why I’m so passionate about a purposeful proposition and the impact it can have on people’s lives. I will leave feeling both proud of what we’ve achieved and grateful for the opportunity.
“Rest assured, I’m not done driving innovation and creating meaningful change for advisers and customers,” she added.
“I’m excited to take everything I’ve learned into a new challenge and will share more on that soon. For now, it’s business as usual for me at Scottish Widows until the end of March.”
