Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE realigns key roles in its Board of Management
Johannesburg/London/Munich/New York/Paris/Sao Paulo/Singapore – 19 June 2020: Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE, the industrial insurer of the Allianz Group, announces a realignment of its Board of Management focusing on responsibilities for regions and markets as well as for Underwriting and Claims functions.
With effect from July 1, 2020, the number of Chief Regions & Markets Officers (CRMO) on the AGCS SE Board of Management will be reduced from three to two: Henning Haagen, current Chief Underwriting Officer Specialty, will assume responsibility for all AGCS regional units outside North America as Chief Regions & Markets Officer Regional Group 1, including Africa, Asia Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe, Mediterranean Region, Regional Unit London, and South America. As Chief Regions & Markets Officer Regional Group 2, Bill Scaldaferri will continue to head the North America Regional Group. Each CRMO will be responsible for approximately half of AGCS’s business in terms of gross premium income of EUR 9.1 billion in 2019.
The two current AGCS CRMOs, Sinéad Browne and Hartmut Mai will resign from the AGCS SE Board of Management with effect from June 30, 2020, and pursue opportunities outside AGCS. Their responsibilities will be merged into one single Regional Group 1 under the lead of Henning Haagen. He will also oversee Global Broker Management.
Underwriting and Claims appointments
In addition, there will be further Board appointments for Underwriting and Claims. As a successor to Haagen’s current role, AGCS has appointed Dr. Renate Strasser as Chief Underwriting Officer Specialty to its Board of Management, subject to regulatory approval. She joins from the Zurich-based New Reinsurance Company Ltd. (NewRe), a subsidiary of Munich Re, where she is currently CEO. Henning Haagen will retain his existing Board responsibility for Specialty lines of business (Aviation, Marine, Entertainment, MidCorp) on an interim basis until Strasser starts at AGCS on a date which will be confirmed later.
The current Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate, Dr. Thomas Sepp, will assume a re-established Board role as AGCS Chief Claims Officer. He will be succeeded by Tony Buckle who will join from Axa XL with effect from July 1 2020, subject to regulatory approval. As Chief Underwriting Officer Corporate, Buckle will oversee AGCS’ Corporate lines of business.
Joachim Mueller, AGCS Chief Executive Officer, notes “Sinéad and Hartmut have been long-standing members of the AGCS SE Board of Management in various roles over many years. I would like to thank them for their extensive list of contributions and achievements. With the consolidation of regional leadership at Board level, we aim to strengthen our global approach at AGCS and to simplify our organization. I look forward to working with both Henning and Bill to act as one team at AGCS globally to service clients and brokers effectively in all our key markets.”
Mueller also welcomes Renate Strasser and Tony Buckle to the AGCS SE Board of Management. “Renate’s strong technical and quantitative background combined with her broad experience across the Property & Casualty industry is exactly the skill set we need. Tony has a strong track record of re-positioning portfolios for performance, as well as extensive experience in underwriting and portfolio management. We have already come a long way in our underwriting turnaround and now the two new Board Members will further help in steering our portfolios to sustainable profitability.”
The appointment of Thomas Sepp as Chief Claims Officer reflects the important role of Claims as Mueller explains: “Claims is the moment of truth for our clients and also a key element of technical excellence in our business. With his strong analytical skills as well as underwriting and claims expertise, Thomas will move our claims team to the next level, improving both services for our clients as well as internal claims analytics and identification of loss trends.”
Biographies at a glance
Henning Haagen was appointed to the AGCS SE Board of Management in April 2020. Previously, he was AGCS’ Regional Head of Specialty and also Northeast Zone Executive for North America, a role he held since January 2017. Bill Scaldaferri joined the AGCS SE Board of Management in 2012 representing AGCS North America as President and CEO. Thomas Sepp moved to the AGCS SE Board of Management in 2019 after being Head of MidCorp Business and Deputy Head of Global P&C for Allianz SE. Before joining Allianz Group in 2014, he spent five years at Zurich Insurance Group in senior leadership roles, including Chief Claims Officer, and was previously a partner at McKinsey & Company.
Since 2016, Renate Strasser has been Chief Executive Officer of NewRe, a carrier of Munich Re Group. She is responsible for the entire legal entity operating out of Zurich, including traditional property and casualty reinsurance business, structured reinsurance solutions, weather derivative business, and life business. Strasser spent six years as an Assistant Professor for Corporate Finance at the University of Klagenfurt, before joining the Munich Re Group in 2004 as a pricing expert for Aviation. From 2007 onwards, she took over the role of Head of Aviation Facultative, where she was responsible for the worldwide portfolio. Strasser holds an MBA from the University of Graz (Austria) and a Ph.D. in Business Administration/Corporate Finance from the University of Klagenfurt (Austria).
Tony Buckle started his career in financial consulting with Andersen, before moving into the insurance sector with GE Capital. He has subsequently held senior underwriting and portfolio management positions both in reinsurance (Swiss Re, GE Frankona) and corporate insurance (Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, RSA, and AXA XL), most recently as Chief Underwriting Officer International P&C at AXA XL, based in Zurich. The buckle is a graduate of Cambridge University and holds an MPhil from the University of London as well as an MBA from Instituto de Estudies Superiores de la Empresa (IESE) in Barcelona, Spain.
Related Posts
« MEC Ntuli meets grief-stricken families of 9 crash victims MEC Ntuli leads Driving School Fumigation & Sanitisation »
