Wakam adopts mission-driven company status

Wakam, Europe’s leading digital insurance company, is convinced of the major role insurers play in the economic and social stabilization of citizen consumers. That is why it chose to go down the path of becoming a mission-driven company under the French PACTE Act (Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation) two years ago. This ambition has led to including its purpose – to “enabling transparent and impactful insurance” – and objectives in its company bylaws, as well as the formation of its independent Mission Committee.

Wakam for profit & for good

This decision is rooted in the personal convictions of Olivier Jaillon, CEO of Wakam, and Denis Thaeder, formerly the company’s Chief Revenue Officer and now Wakam’s Chief Mission Officer.

This decision was developed with the full support of Wakam’s shareholders, who are committed to the long-term and convinced that economic performance and societal impact are inseparable from the insurer’s value proposition to its partners and their customers.

Wakam chose a purpose related to consumer protection inspired by new consumption patterns and consistent with digital uses and the values associated with major societal trends.

This “fourth line of defense” comes on top of the first three levels of supervision defined by the regulator via Solvency II to make protecting the insured a categorical imperative implemented at every company level and shared with its partners.

A Mission Committee that guarantees concrete and ambitious commitments  

Wakam is committed to playing an active role in transforming its industry in favor of insurance that meets consumer transparency expectations through nine measurable commitments that will be implemented over the next three years as per the company’s strategic plan.

The details of these nine commitments are freely available on Wakam’s website. For instance, an inclusive zero-margin insurance offer consisting of eleven solidarity-based products providing the most vulnerable with very real coverage against the curve balls everyday life may throw has been in place for more than a year. It also means improving the value distribution to the benefit of policyholders by limiting distributors’ commission rates or by making contractual documentation simpler and more understandable to all.

Compliance with these commitments will be led by an independent Mission Committee made up of five people recognized for their commitment to society:

• Rémi Grenier, Independent Director of Wakam and former CEO of Allianz Partners, is the Chairman of the Mission Committee as well as the Director and Treasurer of Doctors Without Borders.
• Geneviève Ferone Creuzet, Co-founder and Partner at Prophil, a strategy consulting firm specializing in mission-driven companies, is also the Vice-President of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation.
• Jean-Louis Kiehl is President of the Federation of Crésus Associations, which prevents financial, economic, and social exclusion.
• Paola Fabiani is the founder of Wisecom, the first contact center located in the heart of Paris. She is also President of the Medef’s Comex40 and an elected member of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI Paris).
• Denis Thaeder represents Wakam as Chief Mission Officer.

“We have selected very concrete commitments from our experience as B2B insurance players that take into account our policyholders’ expectations and our social responsibility. These commitments embody our mission at every level, within each team and every decision made by Wakam, hand in hand with our partners. That is how we will be able to help make our industry’s ecosystem more virtuous,” stated Denis Thaeder, Wakam’s Chief Mission Officer.

“We are very proud to be joining the world of mission-driven companies. We consider this quality, not as an end in itself, but a new stage in our desire to further reconcile our profitable economic project with our commitment to society. We see this in the crisis we are currently experiencing: insurance players, in particular, are expected to create consistency between financial protection, new uses, and the search for meaning, especially for the next generations. We must respond to this appeal by offering increasingly transparent and impactful insurance,” stated Olivier Jaillon, Chief Executive & Enablement Officer of Wakam.