CEO Mario Greco Simplifies Zurich’s Corporate Structure
Mario Greco, Zurich’s CEO since March 2016, in June 2016 announced a new corporate structure, shedding the existing life/non-life organization in favor of four regions and several global businesses.
The heads of North America, Latin America, Europe-Middle East-Africa and Asia-Africa will report directly to him as well the heads of Global Corporate, of asset management and of U.S. insurer Farmers.
Combining life and non-life operations is easier in personal lines than on the corporate side, where different distribution channels prevail: employee benefits brokers and consultants usually are separate from their P/C colleagues, addressing distinct audiences of HR leaders on the one hand, and of Finance and risk managers on the other hand.
How these changes will affect Zurich’s ongoing reduction-in-force program that includes 8,000 redundancies is unknown at this time.
In addition, a new role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) is created and will be held by Kristof Terryn, currently CEO of Zurich’s non-life business. Current Chief Operations and Technology Officer Robert Dickie is to step down later in 2016.
The COO will manage operations, IT, underwriting, claims, reinsurance, actuarial and pricing. Apparently, Zurich will leave sales and marketing as well as support functions under the responsibility of country managers, while centralizing middle- and back-office processes and tools in an effort to reduce costs.
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