Brennan to Lead Zurich’s UK General Insurance Unit, Succeeding Sharma
Zurich announced that Conor Brennan has been appointed head of its UK General Insurance business, and will take up this role from the end of July.
External recruitment is now taking place to fill the UK role.
Vibhu Sharma, who currently leads the UKGI business and is the UK Country head, has decided to leave Zurich to continue his career outside the group.
These changes follow an announcement last month that Zurich is bringing its Life and General Insurance businesses together under common leadership within all the countries or territories in which it operates.This new, more streamlined structure will reduce complexity within the global insurer and make sure that distributors and customers can work with the organisation more easily now and in the future, the company said
Brennan has been with Zurich since 2008, and is currently CEO of the Group’s GI business in Ireland. The respective leaders of UKGI’s customer-facing divisions will report to Brennan. Zurich’s Global Corporate business in the UK will continue to be led by Vinicio Cellerini.
“This new structure will make it easier for our partners and customers to do business with us,” said Shaughnessy.
“Conor, Anne and Vinicio have the right skills and experience to lead their respective parts of this combined organization and I look forward to working with them. I thank Vibhu for all he has achieved in his various roles at Zurich,” he added.
“We have strong market positions across Life and General Insurance and I look forward to continuing to build our position in the UK market.”
Commenting on his appointment as head of UKGI, Conor Brennan said, “I’ve long admired our fantastic and well-established GI business in the UK, and I’m looking forward to leading it into the next phase of its development and playing my part in aligning it more fully with the life business.