By Ayo Onikoyi

In Africa’s rapidly digitizing insurance sector, where cyber threats loom large and regulatory scrutiny intensifies, Diana Ussher-Eke has emerged as a pioneering voice redefining the role of human resources in building organizational resilience. With 18 years of pan-African experience spanning Continental Reinsurance, Interswitch, and multinational giants like IBM and Samsung, this strategic HR leader has developed a compelling blueprint for cybersecurity that treats ethical behavior as the foundation of digital trust.

Drawing on nearly two decades of experience spanning IBM, Samsung, and Interswitch, Ussher-Eke—now Group Head of Human Resources at Continental Reinsurance—has quietly led a shift in how reinsurance firms manage cyber risk. Her insight is deceptively simple: if people are the greatest risk, then HR must be part of the solution.

Continental Reinsurance, Africa’s largest privately held reinsurer, operates in over 50 markets. As the firm digitalized its underwriting, regulatory reporting, and client treaty processes, Ussher-Eke introduced an unconventional idea—embed cybersecurity into people systems. From induction to offboarding, she redesigned HR processes to make digital hygiene and cyber vigilance part of every employee’s role.

She instituted job-specific cyber modules in onboarding, collaborated with IT to implement real-time access governance, and integrated cyber KPIs into staff performance frameworks. These weren’t one-off trainings—they were structural changes that made cybersecurity part of organizational accountability.

One area where her impact is particularly visible is insider risk. In a sector where the cost of a breach includes regulatory penalties and reputational loss, insider threats—often unintentional—can be especially damaging. Ussher-Eke addressed this by clarifying acceptable digital behavior policies, creating safe channels for reporting incidents, and building psychological safety around disclosure.

Perhaps her most forward-looking contribution is the Continental Re Academy, a capability-building platform that integrates cyber risk awareness into technical and ethical training. By reframing cybersecurity as an ethical issue—not just a technical one—Ussher-Eke positioned digital trust as a shared value across functions.

This is a departure from the norm in many African financial institutions, where cybersecurity remains isolated within IT teams. Ussher-Eke’s approach turns it into a culture, embedded in process and reinforced by people.

As reinsurers prepare for more complex digital environments—cloud integration, remote underwriting teams, cross-border data sharing—her work provides a replicable model. It also reflects a broader trend: the organizations that will thrive in a cyber-vulnerable world are not those with the best firewalls, but those with the strongest cultures of accountability.

The takeaway is clear: in sectors like reinsurance where data is the business, cybersecurity must be woven into every layer of the organization—and HR is uniquely positioned to drive that transformation.

Diana Ussher-Eke’s perspective reflects years of deliberate, hands-on leadership across a complex, multi-market enterprise. Her work demonstrates that cybersecurity is not something to be retrofitted after a breach. It is a discipline to be embedded through people, policy, and culture—long before a breach occurs.

As more reinsurers confront the digital demands of today’s market—from IFRS 17 to remote work, and from cloud infrastructure to third-party data sharing—Ussher-Eke’s approach provides a replicable framework. And in an industry that depends on trust above all else, the foundations she built may be the most secure asset of all.