Scott Sutton in April 2016 joined L.E.K. as Director of Marketing, Americas. Previously, Scott was Director of Global Marketing at AIRINC, which he joined in 1997 as a Client Service Manager. L.E.K. is a global management consulting firm that is active in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, operations, and marketing and sales consulting, spanning a broad range of industries. Headquartered in London, L.E.K. employs approximately 1000 professionals and has 20

Lockton Benefit in April 2016 appointed Dr. Ronald Leopold as leader of its national Lockton Health Risk Solutions practice. Dr. Leopold will combine his clinical knowledge with Lockton’s data intelligence platform to improve employers’ abilities to identify trends and respond to what’s driving the cost of health. He will also work closely with Lockton’s client service teams to advise employers on developing targeted health management programs to address the

Global employee benefits industry expert Margrit Schmid from Zurich, Switzerland and formerly CEO of the Swiss Life network, has made a momentous and pioneering change in her career path by joining Swiss micro-insurance group, ParaLife in May 2016. In 2016 Margrit Schmid is to familiarize herself with key micro-insurance markets and to contribute to corporate development projects in preparation of her assuming a senior Group Executive position in 2017.

Margrit Schmid, former head of the Swiss Life Network, in May 2016 takes up a new professional challenge in micro-insurance at ParaLife.

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

Medha Rishi in March 2016 was appointed Head of Global Benefits and Global Mobility at San Francisco, California-based payment solutions provider Square. Mehda previously was Vice President and Global Benefits/HR Practice Leader at insurance broker Woodruff-Sawyer, global consultant at Aon Hewitt, senior analyst at Mercer and began her career in the sales and marketing department of pharmaceutical devices manufacturer Cardinal Health. During her tenure at Woodruff-Sawyer, Medha was also

Melissa Ruchhoeft in March 2016 joined the Global Benefits Practice of Lockton Benefit as a Senior Consultant. Melissa comes to Lockton from Gallagher Benefit Services, where she served as the Area Vice President of the company’s Multinational Technical Consulting Unit. Before that, she was the Vice President of Technical Services at IBIS, which was acquired by AJ Gallagher in 2014. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Wellesley

Lockton has named two-time British National Cycling champion Mark Kelly as Regional Commercial Lead for its Asia Pacific division after an extensive talent search. Kelly was hired from Aon’s Health and Benefits Asia Pacific division, and arrives with 12 years’ experience providing strategic advice and relationship management solutions to multinational companies around the globe. Kelly, who holds 23 British Championship medals in total, won the top spot first in

Lockton, the Kansas City-based risk management, insurance, and employee benefits consulting service, has just chosen Andrew Merrilees to head their Asia-Pacific Benefits operation based in Singapore. Lockton’s search for new leadership began in 2015, prompted by a surge in investment and growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Mike Tyler, Head of Lockton UK Employee Benefits, expressed confidence that the addition of Merrilees allows the company to drive faster development of

Barry Perkins has been appointed Regional Director U.K., with responsibility for client management and sales activities. Barry will be relocating to London and will report to Dirk Hellmuth, CEO of Allianz Global Benefits. Before his new position, Barry was Head of Account & Tender Management in the head office of Allianz Global Benefits in Munich, in charge of client service delivery and the operational management of the client teams

Ludovic Bayard, formerly Chief commercial officer of Generali’s GEB unit, is promoted to the position of general manager, effective December 1, 2015. This is one of the outcomes of a comprehensive strategic review of GEB’s operations conducted in the second half of 2015, involving Generali’s top executives up to and including the group’s Group management committee. Other decisions pertaining to GEB’s strategy will be announced in early 2016. At

Global composite insurer Zurich in December 2015 announced the appointment of Gary Shaughnessy as CEO Global Life as well as to the Group Executive Committee. He succeeds Kristof Terryn who was appointed CEO of Zurich General Insurance in October 2015 and still acted as interim CEO for the Global Life unit (see here). Mr. Shaughnessy has been CEO of Zurich U.K. Life since June 2012; in 2014 he assumed

Frank A. Schmid is the new Head of AIG’s Group Benefits business and of the Disability Product Center of Excellence, GBV learned in December 2015. Frank holds a PhD in economics and a post-doc in finance from the University of Lüneburg, Germany. Dr. Schmid published numerous scholarly papers in finance and economics and was affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Vienna, Free University of Berlin, CERGE-EI

Signaling an increased commitment to the global employee benefits industry, global insurance powerhouses MetLife and AXA in late October 2015 announced they will combine their existing MAXIS Global Benefits Network (MAXIS GBN) operations in a new co-owned joint venture company based in London. Mauro Dugulin, formerly CEO of Generali Employee Benefits Network (GEB), will serve as CEO. MAXIS has been headquartered in Paris and New York since its inception

Theo Lutgendorff joined in November 2015 as partner in Sprenkels & Verschuren, Actuaries and Consultants, in Amsterdam. He previously worked at Zurich Global Life as global partnership director (2013-2015), and as head of the Zurich Employee Benefits Network (2010-2013). Before his roles at Zurich, Theo was active in the global benefits and pensions market as principal with Aon Consulting. Sprenkels & Verschuren is the largest privately held and independent

Wendy Liu is the head of Zurich Global Employee Benefits Solutions since July 2015. Zurich Global Employee Benefits Solutions includes Zurich Employee Benefits Network (Zebn). Wendy is currently based in New York and will relocate to Zurich towards the end of 2015. Prior to her current position, she was Global Partnership Director for Zurich Insurance Company, Head of Central Deal Desk for Zurich Financial Services and Senior Consultant at

Swiss Re has appointed Urs Baertschi to the new position of President of Reinsurance, Latin America, reporting to Swiss Re Americas President and CEO Eric Smith and joining the company’s Americas Management Team. The appointment is effective January 1, 2016. Baertschi will split his time between Bogota, Mexico City, Miami and Sao Paulo offices. Previously, Baertschi was Managing Director, Head Principal Investments & Acquisitions Americas for Swiss Re and

Allianz Worldwide Care announced in October 2015 the appointment of Alexis Obligi as Director of Sales and Marketing and member of the Executive Committee, joining from Henner where he was Deputy Managing Director of International & Corporate Business Development. Obligi’s appointment follows that of Ida Luka-Lognoné as CEO in July 2015, succeeding Ron Buchan who retired and became chairman of the board. Obligi reports to the CEO and replaces

Rick Jelinek joined Aetna in October 2015 as executive vice president in charge of the Aetna-Humana integration, as well as of Aetna’s enterprise strategy. In July 2015, Aetna announced plans to acquire Humana, which would approximately double its size. Jelinek reports to Aetna’s Chairman and CEO Mark T. Bertolini and joins Aetna’s Executive Committee. Prior to Aetna, Jelinek was an operating partner with Advent International, a private equity firm.

Aon Benfield in September 2015 announced the appointment of Colin Dutkiewicz as Director of its Accident, Health and Life team, based in London and reporting to Roger Smith, Head of Aon Benfield’s Accident, Health and Life team. Colin joins Aon from Swiss Re, where he spent five years as head of pricing for Africa, client markets director for UK & Ireland, and most recently as global corporate actuary. Prior

The announcement of the impending replacement of Kristof Terryn as CEO of Zurich’s Global Life business unit is apparently the first step in a wider reshuffle. Being promoted to CEO of Zurich’s General Insurance unit is an indication that Terryn was successful in implementing Zurich Group’s strategy in life insurance. Current rumors have it that an external search for a new Global Life leader has been initiated; this does

Zurich announced in September 2015 that Kristof Terryn, currently CEO of Global Life, will take over as CEO of General Insurance, effective October 1, 2015. He replaces Mike Kerner, who held the job since September 2012. Kristof Terryn will continue to run the Global Life business until a replacement is announced. A 48 year old Belgian, Kristof Terryn has been CEO of Global Life since August 2013, and a

Lockton in August 2015 appointed former Allianz Group executive Guilherme Perondi Neto as deputy CEO of its Brazilian subsidiary, Lockton Brazil. His career included stints at credit insurer Euler-Hermes, a member of Allianz group, and at several corporates as credit manager. He holds an MA in strategic management from Universidad Europea del Atlantico, Spain, and an Executive MBA from IBMEC in Brazil.

In late June 2015, GBV learned that AIG Benefit Solutions President and CEO Curt Olson was about to leave AIG. Only a few weeks earlier, Olson had led AIG’s comeback in the global employee benefits market, five years after the sale of the “old” AIG network along with other ALICO assets to MetLife. In late April 2015, AIG acquired a majority stake in ING’s ING Employee Benefits – Global

Sören Schulze joined Allianz Global Benefits in June 2015 as Senior Network Mana­ger based in Munich. In his new position, he is responsible for the operatio­nal and day-to-day management of the network insurers within the Allianz Global Benefits network and reports to Dr. Reinhardt Schink, Head of Market Management. Sören Schulze started his professional career at Generali Emplo­yee Benefits in Frankfurt, Germany as an account executive. He continued his

David Myers was appointed head of Global Broker Life & Health Development in January 2015, based in Munich. In his new role he is responsible for strategic engagement with global brokers. He directly reports to Dirk Hellmuth, CEO and Head of Sales & Distribution of Allianz Global Benefits. Earlier, he was part of the Allianz Group broker distribution team where he has been for four years, the last two

Adam King was appointed Regional Director for the Americas in June 2015, based in Chicago. He is responsible for Employee Benefits sales and distribution to multinational companies in North and South America. In this role he directly reports to Dirk Hellmuth, CEO and Head of Sales & Distribution of Allianz Global Benefits. Before joining Allianz Global Benefits, he was with MetLife/Maxis and in charge of business development in the