Vibhu Sharma, Zurich’s group controller, who assumed Wauthier’s duties pending the naming of a successor, will remain interim CFO until May 2014, Zurich said in a statement. After that he will continue in his position as group controller, Zurich said.
As reported, Zurich announced Wauthier’s death on 27 August, after his body was found the previous morning at his home in Switzerland.
Josef Ackermann, at that time chief executive of Zurich and a former CEO of Deutsche Bank for many years, subsequently quit amid implications that Wauthier had cited job pressures in a note, although the company later declared that no "undue pressure" had been placed on the CFO by his employer.
Quinn, who is British, has been CFO of Swiss Re since March 2007. Prior to this, he was the regional CFO for Swiss Re Americas based in New York, having joined Swiss Re in 1999 as chief accounting officer based in Zurich.
He started his career at KPMG in London.
Zurich chief executive Officer Martin Senn said Quinn was joining the company at an “important time”, as the company prepares to implement a business strategy for 2014 through 2016 that was outlined recently for investors.
Zurich, Switzerland’s largest insurance company, employs some 60,000 people and has clients in more than 170 countries. It is based in Zurich, where it was founded in 1872, and its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange as well as in the US via american depositary receipts.
