Meet the team leading Tower day-to-day
Paul Johnston
Chief Executive Officer
Paul joined Tower as Chief Financial Officer in 2022 and was appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer in June 2025.
With 25 years' experience across multiple industries, particularly in the insurance and financial services sectors, Paul has extensive international, strategic, and operational finance expertise.
Prior to Tower, he was based in Tokyo as the Chief Financial Officer and Far East Region Director for Chubb, one of the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance companies. Before this, Paul spent almost 16 years in the UK with Chubb, AIG, Nomura Investment Bank and Deloitte.
He has a proven international track record in executive leadership and increasing profitability across consumer-focused companies.
Angus Shelton
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Angus has more than 25 years' experience in financial services in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
He has an extensive track record in strategic financial transformation and analysis.
Most recently, Angus was Tower's Deputy CFO, having joined the business as Head of Financial Reporting and Analysis in 2017.
Prior to that he has served in financial leadership roles in New Zealand and the UK for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ and Barclays Capital.
Sharyn Reichstein
Chief Risk Officer
Sharyn joined Tower in July 2023. She is an experienced executive who brings a wealth of knowledge in enterprise risk management, corporate governance, financial regulation, financial risk, and risk management to Tower.
Prior to taking up the Chief Risk Officer role, Sharyn held the position of General Manager, General Insurance, for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), where she was responsible for the regulation and supervision of the general insurance industry in Australia. She was also the Chair of APRA's General Insurance Industry Group, scanning the risk environment and setting strategic responses to industry issues.
With extensive experience in supervision of the financial sector, spanning banking, insurance, and superannuation, Sharyn is highly skilled in stress testing, policy development, supervision frameworks, and corporate strategy.
Michelle Finch
Chief Customer and Marketing Officer
Michelle has a strong background in financial services comprising marketing, product, digital, and growth roles over 23 years, in both New Zealand and South Africa. Michelle joined Tower in 2021, prior to her appointment as Chief Customer and Marketing Officer, she led Tower's marketing and customer experience design initiatives, which have cemented Tower as a progressive and customer focused brand.
Before Tower, Michelle led Westpac NZ's consumer segment's tribe, an agile business unit (100+ team members) focused on creating and delivering end to end customer solutions. Prior to that, Michelle held a number of senior product and marketing leadership positions with Westpac, IAG, and First National Bank South Africa.
Ron Mudaliar
Chief Underwriting Officer
Ron joined Tower as Head of Underwriting in October 2016 with more than 30 years' experience in the insurance industry in New Zealand, London and India. Ron's previous roles include executive management of large operational teams (150+), risk and compliance overview of operational and sales teams, NZ Integration Lead for merger of two large Australian general insurers and managing large portfolios of intermediated and partner businesses.
Ron has led business ownership of large transformation programmes predominantly for migration of legacy business to new products and platforms.
Steve Wilson
Chief Claims Officer
Steve brings more than 20 years’ of insurance experience to Tower, specifically in large operations throughout Australia and Asia. He joins Tower after five years at QBE Insurance, where he served as the Regional Head of Claims for Asia, across Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Pacific Islands.
Prior to working at QBE, Steve worked for IAG for over 17 years, in both the Australian and Asian markets.
Dr. Stephen Hastings
Chief Data and Analytics Officer
Stephen brings over 25 years' experience in data, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and innovation to Tower, with a strong track record in strategy execution, product development, and advanced analytics. His career spans financial services, utilities and the public sector.
Prior to joining Tower, Stephen founded and led KPMG New Zealand's Digital Lighthouse division. He has held several senior data and analytics roles across New Zealand and Australia, including with Contact Energy, M&C Saatchi Group and Accenture.
Stephen is passionate about driving transformation through the intelligent and responsible use of data, analytics, and AI. He holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry.