People News

Rees Fletcher, chairman of its Bermuda-based insurance operations, will retire on 31 March 2016, bringing to a close a distinguished 27-year career with the company.

On January 14, 2016, ACE completed its acquisition of Chubb. ACE Bermuda is expected to become Chubb Bermuda in the second quarter of 2016. As previously announced, Joseph S. Clabby will continue to serve as division president, Bermuda and Global Accounts.

Fletcher joined ACE as an underwriter in 1989. He was employee number 21, having joined just four years after the formation of the company, and is one of the longest-serving employees in the Bermuda operations. Prior to ACE, he spent six years at Bermuda Fire & Marine as Controller, Commercial Lines with underwriting responsibilities for commercial property and casualty accounts before taking the leap from insuring the local Bermuda market to insuring corporate America.

Having started out as an underwriter in the Excess Liability department, Fletcher rose to the position of senior vice president in January 2000. He became the first Bermudian to be appointed president of ACE Bermuda in 2004 with responsibility for the Bermuda-based commercial P&C insurance business that writes high-limit Excess Liability, Property, Political Risk and Directors and Officers coverage worldwide. He was appointed chairman of ACE Bermuda in April 2015.

Fletcher is a past president of the Bermuda Insurance Institute (BII), and has served on the boards of the Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies (BFIS) and Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) and as a member of the Government’s Statutory Insurance Advisory Committee (IAC).

CNA named Jim Gunson vice president, Auto and Liability Claim. In this role, Gunson will be responsible for establishing the strategy and managing the execution necessary to achieve best-in-class claim operations for the company’s Auto and Liability lines of business. He will report to Andy Pinkes, executive vice president, Worldwide P&C Claim.

Gunson joins CNA with nearly two decades of executive level insurance and legal experience, most recently serving as senior vice president, worldwide casualty claim manager, at Chubb where he was responsible for claim operations for General Liability, Environmental, Life Science and Mass Tort lines of business.

The American Insurance Association (AIA) announced that The Hartford’s Chairman and CEO Christopher J. Swift, will become chairman of AIA’s Board of Directors at its March meeting, serving a one-year term. Swift succeeds Michael S. McGavick, CEO of XL Group plc, who served as chairman during the past year.

In March 2010, Swift joined as executive vice president and chief financial officer of The Hartford, a provider of property and casualty insurance, group benefits and mutual funds with more than 200 years of expertise. He became CEO in June 2014.

Swift is on the board of the Insurance Information Institute and is a member of: the Dean’s Advisory Board at the Villanova School of Business; the Business Council; The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy; the Council on Foreign Relations; the Financial Services Roundtable and the International Insurance Society.