Some executive leadership changes are coming to global reinsurer PartnerRe.

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mario Bonaccorso plans to retire on March 31, 2020 to pursue a new unnamed entrepreneurial venture backed by EXOR, the company said. At that point, Bonaccorso will be invited to join the PartnerRe Ltd. Board of Directors as a non-voting observer, as he would not be deemed an independent director per NYSE listing rules. Zurich Insurance veteran executive Nicolas Burnet will replace him in the CFO position, and is slated to join PartnerRe on Feb. 3, 2020, pending various regulatory and immigration approvals.

As well, Maiden Reinsurance’s Andrew Gibbs is coming on board as executive vice president and chief operations officer, effective October 14, 2019. Gibb’s new job is a newly created position that will have responsibility over PartnerRe’s end-to-end underwriting processes, including underwriting support, reinsurance accounting, claims, payments and collections, and Legal, Compliance and Internal Audit services.

PartnerRe President and CEO Emmanuel Clark credited Bonaccorso with helping the company achieve great progress since he joined in April 2016. Clark said Bonaccorso has successfully led a number of strategic initiatives, including the company’s efficiency efforts, “which have led to a significant reduction in our expense ratio, the optimization of our capital structure and the reduction in our financing costs, the improvement of our financial strength ratings and the build-up of our third-party capital platform.”

Burnet, PartnerRe’s designated CFO, joins the company from Zurich Insurance Group, where over the past 15 years he has held a number of leadership positions, including Chief Risk Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Global Life, Chief Financial Officer, General Insurance, and most recently Group Head of Planning and Performance Management. Before joining Zurich Insurance Group, Mr. Burnet was with Neuberger Berman.

Gibbs., the incoming Chief Operations Officer, has more than 30 years of experience in insurance, reinsurance, regulatory compliance and financial services, having held senior positions with the Bermuda Monetary Authority, Validus Holdings Ltd., ACE Group of Companies (now Chubb) and Ernst & Young. At Maiden Reinsurance Ltd., he has held the position of Executive Chairman since January 2019.

Burnet and Gibbs will be located in the Company’s Headquarter office in Bermuda.

Source: PartnerRe