QBE Asia has appointed Patrick Karlowski as chief operating officer, Asia, and Florence Chan as head of data, analytics and AI, Asia, according to a media release on Monday. Both positions are based in Hong Kong
Karlowski assumed the COO role on 29 June, succeeding Klaas Dijkstra, who has taken on the position of chief information officer for QBE International. He reports to Nathan Fuller, chief operations officer, International, with a dotted line to Rob Kosova, CEO of QBE Asia.
Karlowski brings more than 20 years of experience across the insurance, financial services and telecommunications sectors, with a focus on strategy, digital innovation and operations in international markets.
Karlowski joins QBE after most recently working as an independent adviser. He also previously worked at bolttech for over five years, most recently as director of operations and platform automation for Asia and Europe.
Meanwhile, Chan will join QBE on 13 July as head of data, analytics and AI for Asia. She will report to Shrenik Dagli, group head of data, analytics and AI, with a dotted reporting line to Karlowski.
She brings more than 20 years of experience across data, analytics, transformation, financial services and technology, with expertise in regulatory reporting, governance frameworks and AI adoption.
Kosova says the strategic appointments will further advance QBE’s long-term business priorities and strengthen its competitive position in Asia.
“Their respective expertise – Patrick in driving operational excellence that embraces digitalisation, automation and intelligence; and Florence in building strong data foundations that unlock deep risk insights, which ultimately benefit our partners and customers – will help sharpen our focus on driving sustainable growth by being the most consistent and innovative risk partner in the region,” he added.
The appointments are the latest in a series of leadership moves in Asia announced by QBE, with the business earlier this month appointing Andy Tsui to lead corporate underwriting in HK and Macau and its People Risk unit for Asia. Other key appointments so far in 2026 include Carles Tondo as head of property for Asia, Mandy Chan as head of operational power generation and ESG, Johnny Suen as head of property for Hong Kong, and Chai Guan Lim as head of distribution for Malaysia.
