Ashton Jones

Transformation • Innovation • Author • Speaker • Lecturer

Ashton Jones is currently Director of Customer Innovation at Insignia Financial, where he led the launch of one of Australia’s fastest-growing retirement products.

Previously he built TAL’s retirement business from concept to market leader, won the largest group insurance implementation in five years, and co-led three large-scale M&A transactions.

He grew up in housing commission in Sydney. Learned to swim at 34. Lost 40kg. Completed triathlons. Visited all seven continents.

Currently writing Bold Water – a book about transforming systems that resist change, starting with yourself.

Guest lecturer at University of Sydney Business School. INSEAD Advanced Management Programme 2025 (Vice President, Cohort 135).

Portrait of a transformation leader focused on organizational change

From humble beginnings

Family sharing a meal at home in a modest setting

2006

Opening that graduate offer felt like I might just make it out of this world. Pull us out of the mud.

Adult learning to surf in breaking waves at the beach

2022

An idea to protect customers from their first job until their last breath.

Athlete crossing the finish line at a triathlon event

2024

The man who barely survived one lap in Fairlight Pool was the same man floating in the Southern Ocean. Not new, transformed.

Leader speaking at a formal conference or panel discussion

1998

Our home wasn’t much. A row of public housing next to a fire station. Drab and dreary. But solid. Stable.

Family gathered around a kitchen table during an everyday moment

2021

The beach was my family’s birthright, and I’d finally accessed it.

Leader standing outside a national parliament building before a professional engagement

2023

You become a triathlete by finishing a triathlon. Not by looking like one at the start.

Man stepping into icy water during a polar expedition

2025

The same principles that got me across 1.5KM of open ocean got a new retirement product to market in eight months.

Ashton Jones

Transformation is a learnable skill, not a personality trait. I build new things inside systems designed to stay the same – and I teach others to do the same.

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