The outgoing CEO of Guardian, Katya MacLean, has described her departure from the business as “emotional but in a very nice way”.
MacLean, who will be stepping down from her role at the end of September, explained that she will miss the culture and the people of Guardian when she exits her position.
“We have such an amazing collection of people and, between all of us, we have built this very personal and lovely culture and I’m really going to miss that,” she said.
However, MacLean emphasised the strength of the business following her departure, saying: “A business is never about one person and it has been one of my responsibilities to fill this business full of people who want to deliver Guardian’s objectives and they absolutely will.
“They’re a really lovely bunch of people, they are really clever about what they do as well and they will deliver fantastically.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what they do in the future.”
Reflecting on her time as CEO, MacLean stated that the thing she was always most proud of is “any time we pay a claim, anytime we’re helping a family or a customer in a time of need”.
She said when Guardian first came to the market, it developed lots of “great ideas” and we “dared” to be different around things including critical illness definitions and separate child critical illness cover.
“What’s been absolutely wonderful with all of those ideas is the fact that we’ve embedded thinking about claims' outcome in everything we do across all the years,” said MacLean
MacLean also identified Guardian’s recent claims statistics as a highlight as it showed that “all our hard work over all of those years had turned into really good outcomes for customers”.
“For me that was the highlight, having the evidence that the way we think about things and the way we have defined the business and the attitudes of everyone in the business came together to really deliver what we wanted,” she added.
Additionally, MacLean detailed her plans immediately following her departure, stating that she will “properly take six months off” to allow for “a bit of time for spontaneity”.
“I certainly don’t have it all planned out as part of the adventure will be having some time where I’m not just making and following plans,” she said.
She also detailed that the early months will include a lot of travel, including a four week road trip down the southern states of the US and a month in Berlin so she can “re-immerse” herself in the German language.
Towards the end of the year, MacLean plans to visit New Zealand for a month to spend time with her daughter who emigrated to the country last year.
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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