Aon backs Women's Rugby Revolution with major ARU Partnership

Sydney, February 2, 2017 - Aon has joined forces with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) in a new four-year partnership beginning in 2017.

The Aon logo, which adorned the front of the playing strip of famed English football club, Manchester United between 2010 and 2014, will now feature on the back of the playing jerseys of Australia's World and Olympic Champion Women's Sevens team beginning this weekend at the Sydney 7s.

The partnership also provides Aon with naming rights for the new National Women's University Sevens Series which is set for kick off in August 2017.

Aon is a leading provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human resource solutions and outsourcing services. It has approximately 500 offices worldwide, serving 120 countries with 72,000 employees. In Australia, Aon has 41 offices across the country and 1,800 employees.

ARU CEO, Bill Pulver, said: "Women's Rugby has taken giant strides in recent years, and was famously catapulted into the national conscience last August when our Qantas Australian Women's team collected the Gold medal at the Rio Olympics.

"Today we are enormously proud to announce a new partnership, with one of the world's leading risk and people advisers, Aon, aimed directly at supporting our Women's Sevens pathway and the Australian Women's Sevens team.

"This four-year partnership with Aon will commence with this weekend's HSBC Sydney 7s tournament, where our golden girls will play their first official World Series event on home soil with the Aon logo proudly on display across the back of their playing jerseys.

Aon Risk Solutions Australia CEO, Lambros Lambrou, said: "The decision to partner with and sponsor the Women's Sevens was a natural one for us. It's exciting to be a part of one of the fastest growing participation sports in Australia.

"Aon values diversity and inclusion in the workplace and as a driver of business success. This partnership provides us with a real opportunity to not only contribute to diversifying the world of sport but also and ultimately, demonstrates our commitment to empowering women to be successful in leadership.

"We share the ARU's vision of building a high performance culture, and it will be exciting to see how this shared vision evolves along with our partnership.

"Our sponsorship will also enable us to create social impact through our support for the ARU's long term strategic vision "to inspire all Australians to enjoy our great global game. Through this, we are committing to work with the organisation to enhance opportunities for players from grassroots village and club rugby right through to the elite level."

Note to the Editor:

• Additional rights for Aon under the agreement include naming rights for the National Women's Youth Sevens Championship and official status as Risk Partner of the Australian Rugby Union.
• The National Women's University Sevens Series will feature eight teams from five different Australian states and territories. The competition will be played over four separate tournaments, and will feature the country's top emerging women's Sevens talent alongside elite stars from the Australian Women's Sevens team.
• The competition will fill a much-needed gap in the national women's Sevens pathway, offering the nation's best up-and-coming talent the opportunity to train and play in a high performance environment to stake their claims for national selection.
• Women's Sevens participation in Australia grew by 33% for the second consecutive year in 2016. It is the fastest growing team sport in the world.
• More than 30 per cent of the world's total playing population are women and girls, equating to 2 million players and an increase of 300,000 over the last 12 months.

About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE:AON) is a leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. Through its more than 72,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative and effective risk and people solutions and through industry-leading global resources and technical expertise. Aon has been named repeatedly as the world's best broker, best insurance intermediary, reinsurance intermediary, captives manager and best employee benefits consulting firm by multiple industry sources. Visit www.aon.com for more information on Aon and www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon's global and principal partnership with Manchester United.