Former Manulife Financial Corp. (MFC.TO) Chairman and CEO Syd Jackson pioneered an era of improved gender equality, technological advancement, and global investment at Canada’s largest insurance and financial advisory firm, according to the company’s current CEO.

Jackson died Sunday at 93 years old.

“He was an early pioneer of having women play more senior roles in companies, he really led that. That goes back 35 years, before it was popular,” said Donald Guloien in an interview with BNN.

Jackson promoted Gail Cook-Bennett to Manulife’s board in 1978. She would eventually become the chair of the company, making her the first woman to occupy such a role at a financial services company.

Jackson worked at Manulife for 46 years after joining the company’s actuarial department in 1948. He was appointed executive vice president in 1964, and then became the youngest person to serve has Manulife’s president at the age of 50 in 1972.

Manulife’s assets grew from $2.3 billion in 1972 to $16.5 billion in 1985 when Jackson assumed the role of chairman of the board and chief executive officer. The company says its assets totaled $935 billion at the end of 2015.

Guloien says Jackson was among the first at Manulife to embrace new technologies that would eventually come to define the financial services sector.

“He drove much of the use of more advanced information technology at a time when people were comfortable using punch card systems,” he said.

Guloien also credits Jackson’s forward thinking for Manulife’s $4 billion acquisition of Britain’s Standard Life PLC in 2014.

“He came up with the idea of us acquiring Standard Life 35 years ago,” said Guloien, who also notes that Jackson was ahead of the curve with respect to investing in Asia.

Asian assets have grown to represent a third of Manulife’s holdings, with Canada and the U.S. making up the remainder.

Guloien says it has been difficult to maintain Jackson’s progress in promoting more women to influential roles within the company, but it’s a challenge he readily accepts.

“I’m not happy with the number of women we have playing significant roles. While we have many, and 36 percent of our board is composed of females, it’s not 50 percent,” he said. “I know I can speak for Syd on that topic.”