Zurich Appoints Mike Kerner CEO Global Corporate, North America

Kerner, who takes on his new role June 1, formerly led the establishment of sophisticated pricing and risk selection methodologies as global chief underwriting officer and head of group strategy at Zurich Financial Services' headquarters in Switzerland.

Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) has appointed Mike Kerner CEO of the company's Global Corporate North America business unit, effective June 1.

Kerner currently serves as global chief underwriting officer and head of group strategy in Zurich, where he led the establishment of sophisticated pricing and risk selection methodologies and helped drive the development and implementation of the group's strategy, according to a Zurich press release. In his new role Kerner will be responsible for overseeing all Global Corporate business in North America. He succeeds Mario Vitale, who had been fulfilling the Global Corporate CEO role on an interim basis since the beginning of this year.

"In today's ever changing commercial insurance market where sound risk management as well as disciplined underwriting and pricing is more vital than ever, we are very fortunate to have someone with Mike's expertise and knowledge of Zurich's operations take over the leadership of Global Corporate business for North America," said Vitale. "As Global chief underwriting officer, he had extensive experience setting underwriting policy, and overseeing the underwriting and actuarial pricing processes for General Insurance " expertise that puts him in a strong position to succeed in his new role. I'm looking forward to working with Mike to continue bringing the best of our strong product portfolio to customers and continuing to deliver the expertise and dedication of our people in providing the most customer-centric service in the industry."

Having served in a number of senior roles with the Zurich Financial Services Group and with Zurich North America Commercial since 1992, Kerner's background includes extensive experience in underwriting, actuarial, operations, finance and reinsurance, according to the Zurich source. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio