Michael Hansen in March 2016 took up the position of CEO of the Swiss Life pooling network. He succeeds Theo Iaponas, head of corporate clients, who held the interim after Margrit Schmid’s departure in May 2015. Michael is based in Luxembourg, where Swiss Life relocated its Zurich, Switzerland-based global employee benefits operations in 2015 and early 2016.

A graduate from the Danish Insurance Academy, Michael began his career with Swiss Life in Zurich and in Denmark, later founded a life insurance consultancy before joining Danica Pension in Copenhagen, Denmark as Head of International. Danica is one of two Danish partners in the Swiss Life Network.

Luxembourg was already home to Swiss Life’s expatriate products under Iaponas’s leadership; the new organizational structure centralized in Luxembourg includes Operations, Sales & Market Development, Swiss Life Network, and Products & Services. Bringing all global employee benefits products and teams under one roof is expected to “improve the customer centric model”, in line with what other large global EB providers have implemented.