Alleghany Corp. has triggered a changing of the guard, with a new CEO slated to take over at the end of 2021.

Current CEO Weston Hicks will retire as CEO and as a director of property/casualty insurance and reinsurance holding company at the end of this year. Executive Vice President Joseph Brandon will succeed him, in a two-phased process. Brandon will become CEO and be appointed to Alleghany’s board of directors at the end of 2021. But he will succeed Hicks as president of Alleghany on April 23, after the company’s 2021 annual stockholder meeting.

Brandon, 62, has been with Alleghany since 2012, when he joined as executive vice president. Before that he was chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway’s General Re Corp. from 2001 to 2008. Hicks said the two have worked closely together from the beginning, on corporate strategy as well as the company’s insurance/reinsurance operations.

“The Alleghany Board of Directors and I are confident that [Brandon] will bring his expertise and insights to all of Alleghany’s businesses and is the right person to lead Alleghany in the coming years,” Hicks added in prepared remarks.

Hicks, 64, joined Alleghany himself in 2002 as Executive Vice President-Finance, and became director, president and CEO on Dec. 31, 2004. Before Alleghany, he served a stint as chief financial officer of Chubb Corp., and previously was also a senior research analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.

Alleghany board chairman Jefferson Kirby said Hicks has been instrumental in helping to build Alleghany into what it is today.

“When he joined the company in 2002, Alleghany’s stockholders’ equity was approximately $1.4 billion, comprised substantially of passive assets,” Kirby said, adding Hicks “reallocated those assets into several successful acquisitions in the property and casualty industry” and built Alleghany into a holding company with seven subsidiaries.

Today, Alleghany’s stock holder’s equity is now at $8.8 billion as of the end of 2020, Kirby added.

Alleghany’s CEO transition will create another executive change.

Kerry Jacobs, currently Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will succeed Brandon as executive vice president of Alleghany, effective April 23, 2021. Jacobs will continue as Chief Financial Officer until a successor is identified.

Jacobs, 42, joined Alleghany in 2014 as Vice President – Finance and has held critical roles with increasing responsibility during her seven-year tenure at Alleghany.

Source: Alleghany Corp.