Future life insurance conglomerate appoints NEDs ahead of merger

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist

20 June 2025

The final product of the pending purchase of Resolution Life by global life insurance conglomerate, Nippon Life, and its eventual merger with Acenda, formerly known as MLC Life Insurance, has already set about to appointing several “future” independent non-executive directors. 

Catherine Dubé, David Stephen, Melissa Babbage and Rosheen Garnon have been appointed to the board of the Acenda Group, which, subject to completion of the transaction between Nippon Life and Resolution Life scheduled for the second half of 2025, will be the final product of the ensuing merger between Acenda and Resolution Life Australasia.

The appointments, along with Craig Dunn as future Chair of the Acenda Group, will come into effect once Nippon Life’s purchase has been completed. Dubé and Stephen thus continue in their capacity as current Independent Non-Executive Directors of the MLC Limited Board, the same as Babbage and Garnon on the Resolution Life Australasia Limited Board.

The group brings a combined experience across financial services and life insurance in particular spanning several decades.

“I welcome the appointments of Melissa, Rosheen, Catherine, and David as future Directors of the Acenda Group Board,” Dunn said.

“Their combined experience in financial services will be instrumental as we guide the Acenda Group into a new era. I look forward to working with them as we develop and enhance our products and services to meet the needs of millions of customers across Australia and New Zealand.”

Current Independent Director of the MLC Limited Board, Jacqueline Korhonen, will continue in the same capacity until the transaction is finalised, after which the board will be considered a “subsidiary” of the Group. From October 2025, Rodney Cook will also commence as Independent Non-Executive Director of Resolution Life Australasia Limited, which will also operate as a subsidiary Board of the Group.