Zurich NA names James Bracken CFO

Zurich North America announced the appointment of James Bracken as Chief Financial Officer, succeeding Peter Hirs, who returns to Zurich Insurance Group in Switzerland as Group Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. Both Bracken and Hirs assume their new roles July 1st.

Bracken, who has more than 25 years of financial services experience, was previously Chief Executive Officer at Fortitude Re and, before that, CFO at AIG General Insurance. During four years as Fortitude Re’s CEO, Bracken built a Bermuda-based runoff reinsurance company with $75 billion in total assets. He led M&A transactions and a full carve-out from AIG, which culminated in the sale of Fortitude Re to an investor consortium. Before that, he served as CFO of AIG General Insurance for 6 of his 12 years with the company. Prior to AIG, Bracken worked in global finance and audit at GE Insurance, GE Capital and Arthur Andersen & Co.

As Zurich North America CFO, Bracken will oversee Actuarial, Financial Accounting and Reporting, Corporate Tax, Treasury, Planning and Performance Management, and Finance Operations. He will report to Terryn and be a member of the Zurich North America Executive Committee, the Zurich Group Leadership Team, the Zurich North America Leadership Team and the Zurich Group Finance Executive Team. He will be based at Zurich North America’s headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois.

“James’ extensive leadership experience in insurance prepares him well to lead our Finance function and contribute meaningfully on our North American leadership team. His predecessor paves the way for a smooth transition. I thank Peter for his strong stewardship throughout his 4+ years as our North America CFO, and I wish him continued success as we continue to work with him in his new Group role.” – Zurich North America CEO Kristof Terryn.