Swiss Re Claims Exec Huff Named Missouri Insurance Commissioner

Gov. Jay Nixon has picked a Swiss Re insurance claims executive to lead the Missouri insurance department.

John Huff, a Missouri native, has worked since July 2008 at the Zurich headquarters of Swiss Re, one of the world’s larger reinsurance companies.

The governor’s choice must be ratified by the state Senate.

The Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration had been the last major Cabinet position for Nixon to fill.

Huff, 48, joined Swiss Re as a managing director and strategic claims officer in the United States in June 2006. In July 2008, Huff was promoted to the position of global head of key case management and moved to the Swiss Re’s global headquarters in Zurich, to oversee some of the company’s most complex issues in dispute.

Prior to joining Swiss Re, Huff was a global claims leader for GE Insurance Solutions from 1998 to 2006. From 2002 to 2004, he led GE Frankona’s property claims teams throughout the European and Asian markets.

Huff began his career as an associate, and later as a partner, with Field, Gentry & Benjamin, P.C., an insurance law practice in Kansas City, Mo., from 1992 to 1998.

Huff earned his bachelor’s in business administration at Southeast Missouri State University. In May 1987, he earned an MBA at St. Louis University, and he graduated from the Washington University School of Law with a juris doctorate in May 1990.