Zurich Insurance has confirmed reports that its head of group strategy, Claudio Gienal, suddenly left the company in December.
Gienal has chosen to take an undisclosed position outside of the insurance giant, Swiss finance website
finews reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
He will be replaced by Giovanni Giuliani, who joined Zurich from
Generali in September, according to a report by
Reuters.
“In mid-December, Claudio Gienal decided to leave the company,” the news agency quoted a Zurich spokesman as saying.
The company has yet to reveal the reasons for Gienal’s abrupt departure. But according to the
finews report, the resigned executive wanted a different job at Zurich.
The news website learned from one of its sources that Gienal had sought to return to an operations or business role after the new Zurich strategy was rolled out in November.
Gienal spent eight years in various Zurich roles, including project management, operations and life insurance.
He was appointed as Zurich’s chief strategist in April 2016, leading a 40-member task force responsible for designing the company’s new strategy.
The strategy will focus on increasing profitability, consolidating Zurich’s position as a global underwriter for P&C and life. The insurer plans to simplify the business, significantly reduce costs and attain net savings of US$ 1.5 billion by 2019.
“In the next three years, we will focus on execution to increase business profitability through delivering high-quality earnings,” Zurich CEO Mario Greco told investors in November.
“We are reshaping the business for new market realities and to best equip us for future success,” he added.
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