Delphine Maïdou: still a leader within the insurance industry

Delphine Maïdou

Maïdou, who has maintained her 22nd position, is the CEO of Allianz Group's corporate and industrial carrier, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) Africa, which provides risk management and insurance for businesses within Sub-Saharan Africa.

Maïdou is the top ranked business leader within the insurance industry in Sub-Saharan Africa and within the country of her birth, Burkina Faso. A single mother of two, Delphine moved to South Africa in 2012, to assume her current role. She also oversees Allianz's Global Lines Strategy in Africa, which provides corporate, specialty, credit, reinsurance, travel and assistance risk solutions in the continent through AGCS, Euler Hermes, Allianz Re and Allianz Global Assistance.

She is well travelled as she was educated in Ivory Coast and the United States and then spent close to 20 years in technical and leadership roles in both the US for Ohio Casualty Group and Canada for AGCS before coming back to Africa to grow the AGCS business on the continent. Significantly, she was elected the first black female president of the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) in 2015.

Leadership is about showing the way

"I am honoured to receive this recognition from the Institut Choiseul. I attribute it to many people - professional and personal - who have and continue to play influential roles in my career," says Maïdou. "Equally, it signifies the positive and lasting impression that the rest of AGCS Africa team has made within the continent among our clients, brokers, media, industry and regulatory organisations."

"After all, leadership is about showing the way and assembling the best team and resources to achieve a vision. AGCS Africa has made major inroads on the corporate market in Africa and we are well on track to attaining our vision of being the benchmark corporate and industrial insurer on the continent," she adds.

Maïdou says the future of Africa is bright and urges all Africans - home and abroad - to work together to create a prosperous continent for all. She will continue to contribute towards a fully developed and capable insurance industry through the education and development of professionals through AGCS Africa and in collaboration with insurance organisations such as IISA, African Insurance Organisation (AIO), Organisation for Eastern and Southern African Insurers (OESAI), La Fédération des Sociétés d'Assurances de Droit National Africaines (FANAF) and others.

The study, Choiseul 100 Africa, is carried out by the Institut Choiseul. It identifies and ranks the young African leaders of 40 years old and under, who will play a major role in the development of Africa in the near future. Essentially these are growing business leaders, successful entrepreneurs, investors who embody the dynamism and renewal of a whole continent and carry the hopes of an entire generation.

Established in 1997, the Institut Choiseul is an independent and non-partisan Think Tank, whose scope covers Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa. Through its publications and the organisation of prestigious events around influential personalities, the Institut Choiseul continually feeds the decisions of economic and political actors. The Choiseul 100 Africa is a result of a work conducted over several months: the Institut Choiseul contacted many experts and specialists on the continent to achieve this ambitious and unique study which draws up an inventory of the African economic forces