Marc Archambault in September 2017 joined PartnerRe as CEO of the Life & Health business unit with responsibility for growing PartnerRe’s business in those segments and expanding the company’s franchise in all markets. He will be based in PartnerRe’s Zurich, Switzerland, office, reporting to President & CEO Emmanuel Clarke, and replaces Marvin Pestcoe, who has been appointed Chief Risk & Actuarial Officer. Archambault has more than 25 years’ experience

Advocacy organization Cross Border Benefits Alliance-Europe (CBBA-Europe) will hold its inaugural conference on 6 December, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. CBBA-Europe’s purpose is to promote cross-border and pan-European employee benefit plans in Europe. The two keynote speakers are former Obama Administration’s Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security of the US Department of Labor, Phyllis Borzi, and Chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Gabriel Bernardino. Attendance is

Global insurance brokerage Hub International (HUB) in September 2017 announced that it named Marc Cohen, currently President of HUB, as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2018. He will also be a member of the Board of Directors. Cohen will continue to report to Martin P. Hughes, who will continue to serve as Executive Chairman. Cohen will be responsible for the financial strategy, including directing organic sales

American International Group (AIG) in September 2017 announced changes to its organizational structure. AIG will no longer have Commercial and Consumer segments, and will transition to: General Insurance, led by Peter Zaffino, currently Group COO, as CEO; Life & Retirement, led by Kevin Hogan, currently CEO of Global Consumer Insurance, as CEO; and a stand-alone, technology-enabled platform, led by Seraina Macia as its CEO. The platform “aims to transform

Global broker Arthur J. Gallagher in September 2017 announced the acquisition of property and casualty insurance broker Nordic Försäkring & Riskhantering  in Gothenburg, Sweden, for an undisclosed amount. Sweden is considered to be a core strategic development area for Gallagher, following the 2013 purchase of international marine and energy broker Bergvall Marine, based in Norway, and Brim, who are Stockholm trade credit, political risk and consulting specialists. The deal

Local tax authorities throughout China are stepping up efforts to collect individual income tax (IIT), with more frequent and extensive investigations of both individuals and companies, according to a September 2017 report from management consultancy Deloitte. This includes particular focus on three areas: claims relating to non-taxable benefits in kind (BIKs), potential permanent establishment (PE) exposure where a non-resident company sends business travelers to China, and the taxation of

UnitedHealth in August 2017 acquired Advisory Board’s health-care analytics, research and consulting operations for about $1.3 billion including debt. The merger is part of a two-way deal that will also see private equity firm Vista Equity Partners purchase Advisory Board’s education arm for $1.55 billion. Advisory Board will become a part of UnitedHealth’s Optum pharmacy-benefit and health-care services unit. That business has been a major source of revenue growth

New research in the UK from MetLife Employee Benefits shows the number of British workers who value their employee benefits has surged to 55% in the past two years, but employers need to work harder to increase trust among their employees. MetLife’s research shows that rising uncertainty in the job market and the wider economy is increasing employees’ interest in benefits: 55% of employees now say they value their

HR software provider for mid-sized companies Namely has released the results of its open enrollment survey, which identifies what is most important to U.S. employees when it comes to benefits. Findings indicate that 36% of employees rate their HR departments with a “C” or lower when it comes to open enrollment. While 57% of respondents say that their employer has prepared them “pretty well,” only 27% give them an

Nicola Fordham in September 2017 was appointed as Director of Underwriting of the MAXIS Global Benefits Network (MAXIS GBN), the international employee benefits joint venture between MetLife and AXA. She joins from MetLife UK, where she was Chief Pricing Underwriter. In this role, she was in charge of technical relationship between MetLife UK and MAXIS GBN, and led a 25‑strong team of underwriters and built and delivered trainings for

Interview – LeAnne Stefl, Worldwide Broker Network Benefits & Perks for the New Millennium Eric Muller-Borle Is Freelancing the Future of Employment? Anthony Hussenot Is Hiring an Experiential Learning Process? Ming Leung Interview – Frank Schmid, American International Group

Tine Thorsen in September 2017 joined Chubb as Director of Marketing and Communications for Europe, Eurasia and Africa, based in London. Previously, Tine had been the global head of market development for the corporate customer segment at Zurich Insurance in Zürich, Switzerland; head of marketing for global corporates in Europe at Zurich Financial Services in London; and several other leadership position in marketing at Zurich. In addition to her

Global Benefits Vision: Could you share with us the highlights of your career, with emphasis on global employee benefits or on related fields? Frank Schmid: I entered the insurance industry in 2004 from the Federal Reserve, serving as a Senior Economist at the National Council on Compensation Insurance in Boca Raton, FL.

Today, freelancers represent 35% of the United States workforce. In the European Union, the rate is 16.1%. Both figures demonstrate the same global trend: from creative entrepreneurs to those paid by the task, freelancing is on the rise worldwide.

How do employers react to past hiring experiences when it comes to members of specific social categories? In Learning to hire? Hiring as a dynamic experiential learning process in an online market for contract labor, we investigate why job applicants run the risk of not being hired when they reveal their social category – in this case, their country of origin.

Global Benefits Vision: LeAnne, can you share some of your career highlights with us, focusing on global employee benefits and global mobility? LeAnne Stefl: I’ve been in the industry close to 30 years. I started my career on the private client services side, with Barney and Barney (now part of MMA) in San Diego, California, in the mid-1980s. In 1999, I joined Marsh San Diego as a benefit analyst, focused on U.S. clients.

When it comes to research and data on consumer behaviors and attitudes, one of the first names that come to mind in the United States is the Gallup organization. Their most recent report, State of the American Workplace, takes a comprehensive snapshot of the modern American workforce, and was created to help business leaders optimize their attraction, retention, engagement, and performance strategies in a time of unparalleled advancement and social change

Increased leisure time and reduced labor supply of young men may be partly due to the improved quality of video games, according to a working paper published in September 2017 by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The objective of the paper is to distinguish the increase in leisure due to improved leisure technology from increases in leisure due to other forces such as declining labor market

Cyril Samson in July 2017 was appointed as Managing Director, Head of Sales of Allianz Global Benefits (AGB), reporting to AGB CEO Dirk Hellmuth. Based in Stuttgart, he is responsible for the operational management of AGB‘s sales & account management teams, servicing multinational clients in the risk as well as the pension field. Cyril joined Allianz Global Benefits in January 2004 as Managing Director. Since 2013, he has been

Jayesh Patel in July 2017 was appointed as Regional Director for the UK and Ireland of Allianz Global Benefits (AGB), reporting to AGB Head of Sales, Cyril Samson. Based in London, he is responsible for UK multinational clients and is the senior point of contact for AGB network partners in the region. Jayesh joined Allianz Global Benefits in the UK in 2009 and has performed a number of roles

The demand for short term international private health insurance or IPMI which bridges the gap between travel insurance and longer term cover looks set to keep growing, particularly as events such as Brexit unfold. Brexit could unleash yet more demand as international arrangements such as the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) may no longer cover travelers to and from the U.K. . The impact of the internet, budgetary pressures

American International Group in August 2017 appointed Peter Zaffino as Executive Vice President, Global Chief Operating Officer, reporting to CEO Brian Duperrault. Zaffino joins AIG after serving as Chief Executive Officer of Marsh, a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) and as Chairman of the Risk and Insurance Services segment of MMC. He was also a member of MMC’s Executive Committee. Brian Duperreault, who joined AIG in May

American International Group in May 2017 announced the appointment of Brian Duperreault as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director. Duperreault previously served as Chairman and CEO of Hamilton Insurance Group, a Bermuda-based holding company, with property and casualty insurance and reinsurance operations in Bermuda, the U.S. and the UK. Prior to this, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Marsh & McLennan Companies. Before joining Marsh, he served for two years as non-executive Chairman of ACE,

MIBAV from Pulheim, Germany, a firm specialized in consulting corporate top managers and private owners of multinationals in all matters related to strategy and supply chain management of global benefits, received in June 2017 the German “Top Consultant” certification. It is the first time a consulting firm specializing in global employee benefits is certified. The “Top Consultant” certification focuses on work performed for medium-sized firms, in German “Mittelstand”, that are

Interview – LeAnne Stefl, Worldwide Broker Network Benefits & Perks for the New Millennium Is Freelancing the Future of Employment? Is Hiring an Experiential Learning Process? Interview – Frank Schmit, American International Group

Zurich in September 2017 announced the appointment of Peter Huber as Chief Executive Officer, Zurich International. He reports to Patrick Manley, CEO of Zurich Insurance and Chief Administrative Officer for the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region. Zurich International includes the international life businesses in the Isle of Man, Middle East and Zurich International Corporate Solutions (including Zurich Eurolife based in Luxembourg). Peter Huber had been working as

Data breaches and cyber security are a significant concern with U.S. businesses expecting to see an all-time high of nearly 1,500 reported data breaches in 2017. Business owners need to be more vigilant than ever in order to avoid these near-certain attacks, and to protect their employees’ and customers’ personally identifiable information (PII). Generali Global Assistance, in cooperation with the Identity Theft Resources Center (ITRC), in August 2017 released