At Swiss Re, a change in leadership is underway, which can rightly be described as a transition into a new era. The 54-year-old Christian Mumenthaler will relinquish the CEO position to his three-year-older colleague Andreas Berger on July 1st, after eight years at the helm of the reinsurer, embarking on a „new chapter,“ as described in the press release, without further elaboration.

Mumenthaler joined Swiss Re in 1999 after earning his PhD in physics from ETH Zurich, climbing the career ladder from risk manager to head of reinsurance and then CEO . Mumenthaler's mentor was none other than Walter Kielholz, who became Swiss Re CEO in 1997 and, until three years ago, not only shaped the Swiss reinsurer but also the entire Swiss financial sector in his previous role as President of Credit Suisse.

„Swiss Re tries to maneuver like an oil tanker", a seasoned industry insider summarized the essence of the Kielholz era some time ago, which Mumenthaler significantly shaped during his tenure as CEO. For many years, the company had strived in vain to elevate itself to a higher developmental stage through clever strategic maneuvers, according to the industry expert. His suspicion that the traditional reinsurance business might have been too boring for the dynamic former Swiss Re president seems plausible, even with regard to Christian Mumenthaler.

The recently formulated thesis by the Swiss business magazine „Bilanz“ appears plausible, suggesting that Swiss Re has lost significant market share in reinsurance in recent years and weakened its once-leading position in its core business. It's hardly coincidental that Swiss Re is now talking a lot about „more customer focus", a quality that the company had gradually neglected since the creation of a complicated holding structure more than ten years ago, prompting the need for a reorganization last year.

Swiss Re Vice Chairman Jacques de Vaucleroy, who is slated to definitively become the new chairman and successor to Sergio Ermotti at the annual general meeting on April 12th, describes Mumenthaler in the press release as „an incredibly dedicated, passionate, and intellectually strong leader who has also had a significant impact beyond Swiss Re.“

In the concluding remark, the former Axa and ING manager from Belgium hints at why the board now agrees that Andreas Berger is the right person „to build on the positive momentum of the company and lead Swiss Re into the next phase of development.“ Berger, who joined Swiss Re from Allianz in March 2019, proved himself not only as a turnaround specialist but also as a manager with a strong customer focus while leading the industrial insurance division.

The smallest segment of Swiss Re had fallen out of balance due to a misguided expansion strategy starting in 2016 and had accumulated horrendous losses of over 2 billion dollars in the following years. When Mumenthaler became CEO, Swiss Re still achieved a return on equity of 10.6%. In the following six years, the best figure was 5.7%, with an average of an absolutely insufficient 1.7% per year. It wasn't until 2023 that Swiss Re returned to the good times of yesteryear with a profit of 3.2 billion dollars. Under Berger, Swiss Re is likely to expend far less energy and capital on experimenting with new business models and instead focus more on the perhaps boring but existential core business. The personnel change suggests the beginning of a new era at the Swiss reinsurer.