Bupa appoints Asia Pacific CIO

Bupa Asia Pacific has appointed Simon Birch as chief information officer (CIO), replacing interim CIO Jenny Watson.

Simon Birch

Watson had been acting in the role since April 2022, when former CIO Sami Yalavac took an interim managing director role.

Yalavac decided in December not to return to the CIO role at Bupa and left the company entirely.

Watson has since been appointed the health insurance company’s senior tech director health insurance and business services.

Birch comes to Bupa after nearly four years at the Commonwealth Bank, including acting as chief technology officer since September 2022.

Prior to that, he spent seven years with Barclays in the UK, including two years as CIO for corporate and bank payments.

Birch commenced at Bupa yesterday.

CEO Nick Stone thanked Watson for her “dedication and stewardship during the past 14 months”, and welcomed Birch.

"Simon has significant experience in transforming the technology environments of large organisations and leading digital uplifts, which will be invaluable for Bupa APAC as we continue to modernise, digitise and personalise healthcare for our customers," Stone said.

In a post on LinkedIn, Birch said he was “delighted to be starting at Bupa and joining Nick Stone and all of the ELT [executive leadership team] here on the transformation and connected care journey.”