Nicolas Denys
Head of Employee Benefits, Group Risk ManagementAXA Group
Nicolas has 20 years of experience in various Insurance Departments - Risk Management, Finance, Strategy and Actuarial science - with the objectives to develop or validate products, services and strategies which contribute to deliver values and reach AXA's targets.
He has been part of the Life & Health Group Risk Management at AXA Group since October 2017. He contributed to developing technical excellence (Group Insurance Office - GIO) before becoming responsible for the Employee Benefits team in Group Risk Management.
He administers the GUCs (Group Underwriting Committees) to define the appropriate governance, risk framework and delegation rules to secure the large deals operations (4bn premiums reviewed each year). Leads the development and maintenance of the Health & Life standards and guidelines where they relate to Employee Benefits and manage derogation requests. Developed risk culture and work in collaboration with other departments and entities to define risks framework and risks appetite for specific risks (Long Term Care, Critical Illness) or specific Geographies (Australia, US). Participates to entities’ In-Depth Reviews: Control entities’ compliance with Group Standards, identify room for improvements in pricing, underwriting and portfolio management, edict recommendations to Senior Management, and monitor implementation of associated action plan. Provide support to other technical areas regarding EB insurance where required, including Group Processes such as product tree, strategic plan, quick screen.
As part of GIO, Nicolas defined the technical guidelines and best practices for Group Health & Protection (eg. credibility theory for pricing, large claims management, portfolio management process). He contributed to the Strategic Review of Employee Benefits that entailed analysis of past performance, entities technical skills assessment and coordination with GCD. He promoted technical excellence through best practices sharing with entities and markets and Validate EB Partners tools.
Nicolas has held various positions since he started at AXA in 1999. He was Assistant Actuary at AXA Assurance, Group Life & Health Business (1999 - 2002). While at AXA France he was Actuary - Products and Standards Management (2002-2005), Actuarial Manager AXA Wealth Management (2005-2007), Actuarial Manager (2007 - 2011) and Actuarial Life Director's Executive Office (2008 - 2011) . Other positions he held was Deputy Business Support and Development Manager (BSD), Strategy (2011 - 2013) at AXA Group and Senior Strategic and Performance Analyst, Finance at AXA Global Life (2013 - 2017).
Nicolas received a Masters in Applied Mathematics & Computer Science from Angers and a post-graduate diploma from the Institute of Applied Mathematics in 1998. He continued his studies receiving a post-graduate in Actuarial Studies at Centre d’Etudes Actuarielles (CEA) (2003), Masters course at AXA Risk College (2007), Certificate in “Data Science in Real Life” & “Building a data science team” University Johns-Hopkins, Coursera (2018) and took management and communication training courses (2000-2018).
Nicolas is married with 3 children. He enjoys cycling, running, hiking, cooking and mentoring students.