The Federal Council today elected Benjamin Gentsch to the Board of Directors of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA. The proven insurance specialist will take up his duties on 1 July 2019. The board will then have nine members.
At its meeting today, the Federal Council elected Benjamin Gentsch (58) to FINMA’s Board of Directors. Benjamin Gentsch is a proven insurance expert. After graduating from the University of St. Gallen in business administration, he began his professional career in the reinsurance industry and became a member of Zurich Re’s executive board in 1998. In this role he played an important part in Zurich Re’s successful initial public offering and was later appointed CEO of the Swiss arm of this new company under the name Converium. Following the sale of Converium to French-owned Scor in 2007, he was a member of Scor’s group executive board as CEO of the Swiss unit and Deputy CEO of the global non-life unit. Benjamin Gentsch also sat on various committees of the Swiss Insurance Association (SIA) until March 2018, including the reinsurance forum and as first president of the reinsurance committee established in 2017.
Thomas Bauer, President of FINMA’s Board of Directors, congratulates Benjamin Gentsch on his appointment, adding: “Besides in-depth knowledge of the Swiss and international insurance industry, Benjamin Gentsch has many years of operational and strategic management experience. Due to his previous roles, he is also very familiar with the tasks and challenges of financial market supervision.”
Benjamin Gentsch was elected to FINMA’s Board of Directors for the remainder of the current term of office from 2016 until the end of 2019. The board will thus comprise nine members again.
Contact
Vinzenz Mathys, Media Spokesperson
Tel. +41 (0)31 327 19 77
vinzenz.mathys@finma.ch
