Zeller Retires As Hannover Re CEO

NU Online News Service, July 1, 11:59 a.m. EDT

Hannover Re Group said Chief Executive Officer Wilhelm Zeller, after leading the company for more than 13 years, has retired as planned.

The Hannover, Germany-based firm said, as announced in January, Mr. Zeller is succeeded by Ulrich Wallin as Hannover Re and E+S Rueck CEO.

Hannover said Mr. Zeller, who took his CEO post in 1996, began his career in the industry in 1969 with the Gerling Group in Cologne and one year later moved to Zuerich Versicherungs-Gesellschaft in Frankfurt, where he headed the Property and Casualty Germany and International Non-Life departments.

In 1977 Mr. Zeller was appointed to the Cologne Re board. In 1995 he also became a member of the Executive Council of Cologne Re's new principal shareholder, General Re Corp. in Stamford, Conn.

The company said that under Mr. Zeller's leadership "Hannover Re evolved into a major global reinsurance group. Mr. Zeller restructured the group and established Hannover Re as a 'somewhat different reinsurer.'"

The firm said he pushed a strategy of "efficient capital management, active cycle management and a focus on profitability rather than premium volume or market share as well as the strategically important expansion of life reinsurance," making Hannover Re "successful and strong."