Swiss Re Americas Names Former USAA Life President as Its New CEO

Swiss Re has named J. Eric Smith as the new president and chief executive officer of Swiss Re Americas. He will take up the post on July 11, the company said.

Smith will succeed Pierre Ozendo, who will retire this year after more than three decades in the insurance industry.

Smith will lead the company's property/casualty and life and health reinsurance businesses in the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. He also will have operational oversight of all Swiss Re Group activity in the regions.

He's also slated to join the Swiss Re Group Management Board, where he will report to Chief Marketing Officer for Reinsurance Christian Mumenthaler.

Upon his retirement, Ozendo will join the Board of Swiss Re America Holding Corp. as a nonexecutive director.

Smith was formerly the president of USAA Life, the life insurance arm of USAA, since 2010.

Attempts to reach USAA for comment about Smith's replacement to head up its life company were not immediately successful.

Smith also was the former president of Allstate Financial Services and spent more than 20 years in various leadership roles with Country Financial, helping to build its property/casualty business. He serves on the executive committee of the American Council of Life Insurers.

Smith plans to relocate from San Antonio to Armonk, N.Y., the site of Swiss Re'sAmericas headquarters, for his new role.

Smith has been a long-time advocate of technology "as a way to not only create business value and competitiveness, but accessibility to insurance products," the company said in a statement. From the early days of point-of-sale software and sales force automation while at Allstate and Country Financial, to innovative developments around underwriting and instant issue at USAA, he has continuously "tapped technology innovation to make insurance easier to distribute, acquire and maintain."

At the 2010 ACLI annual conference in Baltimore, Smith talked about it being a time where a lot is expected of the life industry. "We live in an interesting time. A lot of change is going on, and a lot of questions are being asked of any industry involved in financial services, especially those of us entrusted with the financial security and wealth of our members [meaning customers]" (BestWire, Oct. 19, 2010).

Swiss Reinsurance Co. Ltd. and Swiss Reinsurance America Corp. currently have a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent).

(By Lori Chordas, senior associate editor, Best's Review: [email protected])