At Swiss Re there will be a changing of the guard at the top of the company in the middle of the year. The reinsurer’s board of directors appointed Andreas Berger as Group CEO as of July 1, 2024. This means that an internal successor follows the previous CEO Christian Mumenthaler, who is stepping down.
Berger joined Swiss Re in March 2019 as CEO of Corporate Solutions and a member of the executive board, the insurance group announced. In the Corporate Solutions division, primary insurance is offered to larger corporate customers.
Berger managed to turn around this smallest division of Swiss Re, which had been making losses for years. Last year the division recorded a profit of $678 million.
Caption: At Swiss Re there is a backseat. The previous CEO Christian Mumenthaler is stepping down after eight years at the helm. Keystone/Ennio Leanza
Berger will step down from his current position as CEO of Corporate Solutions upon taking up the CEO position, although the selection process for a successor has already been initiated, it is said. He will take up the position as CEO on July 1st.
Andreas Berger
CEO Swiss RE ab Juli 2024
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The 57-year-old German has been working for Swiss Re since 2019 and headed the Corporate Solutions division. Before joining the insurance group, he held various management positions at Boston Consulting Group, Gerling and Allianz.
Berger is also Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Insurance Society and a member of the Board of Directors of Advance, a Swiss initiative for gender equality in business.
Christian Mumenthaler, who is stepping down in July, has been CEO of Swiss Re for eight years. He has worked for the company for 25 years. The board of directors paid tribute to the 54-year-old. During his time as CEO, bonuses earned increased from around $30 billion in 2015 to $45 billion last year and capitalization was strengthened.
Shares fall by 1.3 percent
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The relatively surprising change at the top of Swiss Re, according to analysts, has led to a certain degree of uncertainty on the stock market. At 10:35 a.m., Swiss Re shares were trading 1.6 percent lower at 113.50 francs, putting them at the bottom of the little-changed SMI (+0.1 percent). Since the multi-year high of 117.20 francs on March 21, Swiss Re has lost almost 3 percent.
However, there have been some cracks in Mumenthaler’s track record recently. In recent years, with a few exceptions, Swiss Re’s profitability has been worse than that of its competitors, writes Simon Foessmeier, insurance expert at Bank Vontobel, in his short commentary. The change in boss was not initially well received on the stock exchange: Swiss Re shares fell by 1.2 percent in early trading.
The Swiss Re Board of Directors described Berger as the right leader to “build on the company’s positive momentum” and lead Swiss Re into the next phase. A spokeswoman described the change as an “orderly transition”. Mumenthaler has been running Swiss Re for a long time, she said. «The company is in a good position and the markets are good. So it’s a good time for a change.”