Swiss Re announced the appointment of Thierry Léger as the group chief underwriting officer, effective Sept. 1, 2020. At the same time, the reinsurer announced it is restructuring its life businesses.

Léger succeeds Edouard (Edi) Schmid, who has decided to step down from the group executive committee for personal reasons and take on an advisory role.

For the last four and a half years, Léger has been leading the Life Capital Business Unit, which combines Swiss Re’s ReAssure, elipsLife and iptiQ businesses, since its creation in January 2016. He joined Swiss Re as an engineering underwriter in P&C in 1997, before moving to Swiss Re New Markets in 2001, providing non-traditional solutions to insurance clients.

Between 2003 and 2005, he was a member of the executive team in France. From 2006, Léger assumed increasing responsibility for Swiss Re’s largest clients, developing risk and capital solutions, and ultimately becoming the head of the Globals Division in 2010 and a member of the then existing group management board. In 2013, he assumed the role of the head of Life & Health Products Reinsurance.

“On behalf of the board of directors I would like to thank Edi Schmid for his dedication and an enormous contribution to Swiss Re over nearly three decades. We are grateful that he will continue to share his expertise and knowledge with the group in an advisory capacity,” said Swiss Re’s Chairman Walter B. Kielholz.

“We are also pleased that Thierry Léger has accepted this new challenge after achieving many milestones during his time at the life capital business unit. His expertise in underwriting, technology, data and innovative solutions will be a big asset in furthering the development of Swiss Re’s leading position in underwriting,” Kielholz added.

Edi Schmid has been the group chief underwriting officer and member of the group executive committee since July 2017. He joined Swiss Re in 1991 and has since held a number of important roles, such as head Property & Specialty Reinsurance, head Property & Casualty Risk and Actuarial Management, and chief risk officer Corporate Solutions.

Restructuring Life Businesses

Following the completion of the sale of ReAssure to Phoenix Group Holdings plc, which is expected for the third quarter of 2020, the Life Capital Business Unit will be disbanded. This process is expected to be concluded by the end of December 2020. Effective Sept. 1, 2020, the CEO of Life Capital (Léger’s soon-to-be former role) will no longer be a member of the group executive committee.

Subject to applicable regulatory approvals, elipsLife, which provides life and health insurance solutions and services for corporate clients, will move to Corporate Solutions at the end of September 2020, allowing it to better leverage this Business Unit’s relationships with corporates and brokers.

Swiss Re’s white-labelling digital insurance platform iptiQ will become a standalone division reporting to the Group CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2021, enabling a greater focus on this business. Swiss Re continues to assess the further streamlining of the legal entity structure of the group. (Via a digital platform, iptiQ aims to help its partners to expand their product range into both life and health and property and casualty insurance products quickly and with minimum investment).

“The changes announced today will position Swiss Re well for the next chapter of the group’s strategic development. Having grown dynamically over the past years, iptiQ is on track to becoming a leading player in its field,” commented Swiss Re’s Group Chief Executive Officer Christian Mumenthaler, in a statement. “And being part of Corporate Solutions will open further growth opportunities for elipsLife. In underwriting, we will continue to evolve our capabilities through cutting-edge research, access to more and better data and advanced analytics.”

Source: Swiss Re

*This story appeared previously in our sister publication Insurance Journal.