CIGNA boosts France team with senior appointment

CIGNA, the Hartford, Connecticut-headquartered global health services company, today announced the appointment a senior sales director for France, spearheading the company’s continued expansion into health insurance services for “globally mobile employees”.

Ms Thien Brechon, pictured left, joins the Fortune 100 global health insurance and service company after a 20-year career with the Henner Group, a key player in the French market for group healthcare insurance.

She led the international employee benefits department in her most recent role, tasked with advising companies on health insurance policies for expat – or “globally mobile” – employees.

Before that, she was Singapore country manager, responsible for business development in Asia Pacific.

In a statement, CIGNA said that Brechon will use her expertise “to continue developing and strengthening CIGNA’s presence in France”

The statement said that she will work in partnership with Nicolas Redant, sales director for France, Belgium, Luxembourg and French-speaking Switzerland, and that she will lead Cigna’s efforts to provide personalised healthcare products and services for expat employees of SMEs, multinational companies and government entities.

It has been a year of determined expansion for CIGNA.

In July, as reported in International Investment, CIGNA acquired Zurich’s Middle East general insurance entity for retail and small business customers.

And in June, again as reported, CIGNA opened its regional management office for the Middle East and North Africa markets at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), in a bid to take advantage of the lucrative Middle East marketplace.

The new office put CIGNA in what it called “a prime position” to deliver its products in the UAE and the wider Middle East region for locals and international expats alike.

Raymond Linnartz, sales director at Cigna Global Health Benefits Europe, said that it was important to have “a local presence to best serve French companies” and their globally mobile employees.