Allianz AGCS parts ways with regional leaders in management reboot

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS), the industrial insurance arm of the Allianz Group, has restructured its board of management, reducing the number of chief regions & markets officers from three to two, and hired senior leaders from AXA XL and Munich Re subsidiary NewRe.

AGCS chief executive officer Joachim Mueller said that the regional leadership reshuffle aims to strengthen the global approach at AGCS and to simplify the organization.

The two current chief regions & markets officers Sinéad Browne and Hartmut Mai will resign from the AGCS SE board of management with effect from June 30 and leave the company.

Henning Haagen, current chief underwriting officer (CUO) specialty, will assume responsibility for all AGCS regional units outside North America as chief regions & markets officer regional group 1, including Africa, Asia Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe, Mediterranean Region, Regional Unit London, and South America. As chief regions & markets officer regional group 2, Bill Scaldaferri will continue to head the North America Regional Group. Each CRMO will be responsible for approximately half of AGCS' business in terms of gross premium income of €9.1 billion in 2019.

Browne and Mai's responsibilities will be merged into one single regional group 1 under the leadership of Haagen. He will also oversee global broker management.

Additionally, there will be further Board appointments for Underwriting and Claims.

As a successor to Haagen’s current role, AGCS has appointed Renate Strasser as chief underwriting officer specialty to its board of management. She joins from the Zurich-based New Reinsurance Company (NewRe), a subsidiary of Munich Re, where she is currently CEO.

Haagen will retain his existing Board responsibility for specialty lines of business (aviation, marine, entertainment, MidCorp) on an interim basis until Strasser starts at AGCS.

Furthermore, current chief underwriting officer corporate, Thomas Sepp, will assume a re-established board role as AGCS chief claims officer. He will be succeeded by Tony Buckle who will join from AXA XL with effect from July 1. Buckle will oversee AGCS’ corporate lines of business.

Mueller commented: “Sinéad and Hartmut have been long-standing members of the AGCS SE Board of Management in various roles over many years. I would like to thank them for their extensive list of contributions and achievements. With the consolidation of regional leadership at Board level, we aim to strengthen our global approach at AGCS and to simplify our organization. I look forward to working with both Henning and Bill to act as one team at AGCS globally to service clients and brokers effectively in all our key markets.”

He added: “Renate’s strong technical and quantitative background combined with her broad experience across the Property & Casualty industry is exactly the skill set we need. Tony has a strong track record of re-positioning portfolios for performance, as well as extensive experience in underwriting and portfolio management. We have already come a long way in our underwriting turnaround and now the two new Board Members will further help in steering our portfolios to sustainable profitability.”

“Claims is the moment of truth for our clients and also a key element of technical excellence in our business. With his strong analytical skills as well as underwriting and claims expertise, Thomas will move our claims team to the next level, improving both services for our clients as well as internal claims analytics and identification of loss trends,” he concluded.