Coming To Life

As He’s Built The Local Business From The Ground Up, Ceo And General Manager Robert Elliott Has Also Helped The Nascent Industry To Grow; Before 2012, The Year When Manulife Arrived, Life Insurance Didn’t Exist In Cambodia.

- Chrissie Mcclatchie

It’s not every day that, as an executive, you are handed an opportunity like the one Robert Elliott was in 2012. “That was the year we entered the Cambodian market, where life insurance was new to many Cambodians,” the CEO and General Manager of Manulife Cambodia explains. “Manulife was the first international life insurance company to be granted a life insurance licence by the Ministry of Economy and Finance in the kingdom.” Of course, there were challenges. “Compared to other ASEAN countries, like neighbouring Vietnam, where the industry had been established for at least 20 years, life insurance was a new concept in Cambodia, and gradually people started to buy life insurance to protect their long-term income, or use life insurance as a way to save for the future, or to fund their children’s education or even their retirement,” Robert says. “This was the first generation of Cambodians to have the opportunity to buy life insurance, so it was not as if people could refer to their parents or grandparents for advice on what policy to take out or the reputation of the company.”

Yet, every challenge has been matched by an opportunity, none greater than the chance to make a difference to a country and its people. “It has been a privilege for me and my team to build a company that protects people’s financial future,” he says.