Swiss Re's Board of Directors today appointed Michel M. Liès as new Group Chief Executive Officer.Liès will assume the post on February 1. He will take over for Stefan Lippe who announced that he will step down in December of last year.
Liès is already steeped in Swiss Re culture. He has experience in both the life and non-life re/insurance aspects of the business and has held various roles at Swiss Re for more than 30 years.
Born in France, Liès is a citizen of Luxembourg. He obtained a degree in mathematics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich before venturing to Brazil to serve as Chief Financial Officer of a ceramics company. He used his familiarity with the region to focus on Latin American Life & Health markets for Swiss Re which he joined in 1978. In 1994 he was named Head of Swiss Re Iberia & Latin America Property & Casualty and by 1998 he served as a member of the Executive Board and Head of the Latin American Division.
Liès continued to advance through the company's ranks and from 2000 through 2005 he led Swiss Re's Europe Division. At the end of that tenure he became global Head of Client Markets and a member of the Executive Committee. Most recently, in the fall of 2010 he was named Chairman of Global Partnerships.
