Reinsurer PartnerRe names Nicolas Burnet as successor to retiring executive vice president and CFO Mario Bonaccorso

PartnerRe has revealed that Nicolas Burnet will succeed Mario Bonaccorso as executive vice president and chief financial officer when he retires on March 31, 2020.

Burnet joins the reinsurer from the Zurich Insurance Group, where he held a number of leadership posts over the past 15 years including chief risk officer and CFO, Global Life, CFO, General Insurance, and most recently group head of planning and performance management. Prior to joining Zurich Insurance Group, he worked at Neuberger Berman.

Once retired Bonaccorso plans to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture with financial support from EXOR. Burnet will take up the role on February 3, 2020, subject to customary regulatory and immigration approvals.

Bonaccorso will be invited to join PartnerRe’s board of directors as a non-voting observer as he would not be deemed an independent director under NYSE listing rules.

President and CEO Emmanuel Clarke said: “Nick brings deep experience in risk, capital, and finance functions in both the life and non-life businesses that will benefit us as we continue to grow as a composite reinsurance company. I look forward to working with him.”

He added: “While we will miss Mario’s executive contribution, we will continue to benefit from his insights and contributions with his participation on the PartnerRe board of directors.

“Mario has been very instrumental to the company’s progress since he joined in April 2016. He has successfully led a number of strategic initiatives, including our efficiency efforts which have led to a significant reduction in our expense ratio, the optimisation 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. Mario has consistently delivered outstanding results and I am immensely grateful to him for what he has accomplished and what he leaves behind.”

At the same time, the company announced it will appoint Andrew Gibbs as executive vice president and chief operations officer, effective from October 14, 2019. The newly created position will have responsibility over the reinsurer’s end-to-end underwriting processes. This will include underwriting support, reinsurance accounting, claims, payments and collections, as well as its legal, compliance and internal audit services.

Gibbs brings more than 30 years’ experience in insurance, reinsurance, regulatory compliance and financial services, having held senior positions with the Bermuda Monetary Authority, Validus Holdings, ACE Group of companies (now Chubb Group of companies) and Ernst & Young. He joins PartnerRe from Maiden Reinsurance, where 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.