Management Profiles

Juan Beer has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Zurich Switzerland since Februar 2018. He first joined Zurich Insurance Group in 1987 as an apprentice and since then has held various positions in Underwriting, Sales and Relationship Management as well as in Market Segment and Country Management. This includes a series of senior leadership and management positions as Chief Executive Officer of Zurich's Global Corporate business in Switzerland, Head of International Program Business for Zurich's Commercial Insurance business in Spain, Global Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich's Global Corporate business, Global Chief Underwriting Officer for Zurich’s Property, Engineering Lines and Marine portfolio and Global Head of the P&C Technical Center. In his most recent role as Zurich's Global Head of Group Reinsurance, he successfully redirected and executed the Group's reinsurance strategies enabling protection of Zurich's strong capital base and earnings.

Juan Beer holds a Commercial and Insurance Diploma from Zurich Business School and completed an Advanced Management Program at IESE Business School in 2013.

Urs Lüthy was appointed Head Commercial Insurance at Zurich Switzerland in August 2022. Before this he was Head Customer & Distribution Management for Commercial Insurance Switzerland from 2017. He began his career as an underwriter with XL Insurance America in Dallas and New York. Urs Lüthy joined Zurich in 2002 as Head of Property for International Programs, following which he took on the role of Global Relationship Leader. In 2012, he was appointed Chief Underwriting Officer for corporate business in Switzerland. Urs Lüthy holds a Master of Business Administration from Vlerick Business School/University of St.Gallen. 

René Harlacher has been Chief Underwriting Officer since August 2016. Prior to joining Zurich Switzerland, he served in different leadership roles for Axa Winterthur, including Head of Underwriting, Head of Business Development Property & Casualty and, most recently, Head of Commercial Customers. In addition, René Harlacher previously worked as a consultant in the insurance and IT industries. He has a Master of Science in Business Informatics from Zurich University.

Robert Gremli was appointed to Head of Brokers & Partnerships at the Swiss business unit at Zurich in March 2018. He began his career in 1988 as trainee at Zurich, had various management roles within the Zurich Group and gained broad knowledge of the international and local commercial customer business. Robert Gremli previously served as Group Chief Risk Engineering Officer  for eight years.  Robert Gremli studied Business Administration in Zurich and gained an MBA in Financial Services and Insurance in St. Gallen. 

Sandro Meyer joined Zurich in 1994 and launched his career in what was formerly SBU Life International. Between 2001 and 2006, he built up the Zurich Employee Benefit Network (ZEBN) within Global Corporate, International Program Business. In 2006, he relocated to Chicago for Global Corporate, where he served as Senior Vice President, Customer Relationship Management. In August 2010, Sandro Meyer assumed the role of Head of Corporate Life & Pensions (CLP), before being appointed Head of Life in November 2016. He has a bachelor’s degree in business management.

Ralph Echensperger has been Chief Claims Officer for Zurich Switzerland since October 2016 and is responsible for sustainability topic (ESG) from January 2022. Prior to this role, he was responsible for leading Claims Motor at Zurich. He started his career in 1992 as a commercial trainee and held various positions within Zurich Financial Services until 1999. He then started working as a consultant in London, before returning to Switzerland where he held leadership positions with two insurance companies.

Andreas Henke has been Chief Financial Officer at Zurich Switzerland since February 2020. Andreas Henke joined from Group Treasury by January 2019 as Chief Risk Officer.He has been Treasurer EMEA since 2015. In this role, he has driven the strategic implementation of Solvency 2 as well as taken care of topical issues such as Brexit and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). In addition, he worked on capital topics together with our European management teams and their regulators. Prior to this, he served in various Group Finance roles and has been an insurance auditor with KPMG and also a Corporate underwriter with Allianz in Germany. Andreas holds a degree in Business Administration and is a Swiss Qualified Accountant and Auditor as well as a certified Financial Risk Manager (GARP).

Thomas Hickert has been managing the Human Resources (HR) division at Zurich Switzerland on an interim basis since July 1, 2023. He joined Zurich in 2004 and has performed various roles, most recently that of Head Integrated Talent Management. Before his time with Zurich he held various positions in human resources, including Head of Human Resources at Agroscope, the Swiss federal research institute. Thomas Hickert holds a diploma in Insurance Management from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Design Thinking from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Thomas Steiger has been leading Distribution at Zurich Switzerland since February 2017. Before this appointment he led the newly created Chief of Staff department where he was responsible for the business unit’s strategy as well as Marketing, Corporate Responsibility and Communications. Prior to this role, he served as Head of Retail from November 2010 to March 2016. Thomas Steiger started his career in the insurance industry in 1992 where he served in various roles including Head of Insurance Solutions at COMIT AG. He also held different positions within Sales, Product Management, Marketing and Operations. He gained international experience working in Asia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United States. Thomas Steiger has a degree in insurance management from the University of St. Gallen. He has extensive experience in the fields of life and general insurance, assets, sales and IT/operations, and knows the Swiss banking market inside and out.

Andreas Fischer has been Chief Investment Officer for Switzerland since 1 November 2018. He joined Zurich in 2009 as Regional Investment Manager for Southern Europe and Africa. Over time, he gained additional responsibilities for Austria, Ireland Life and Group Treasury. Over the last 18 months, he has also built up a credit analysis team in Barcelona. From mid 2017 until the beginning of 2018, Andreas Fischer was CIO Spain ad interim in Barcelona. Prior to joining Zurich, he held various positions in leading global investment banks. He started his professional career at Goldman Sachs Bank in Zurich, where he was responsible for regulatory reporting. Andreas holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Zurich and is a CFA Charterholder.

Claudia Biedermann has headed the Legal department of the General Counsel Switzerland since May 1, 2021. She began her career at Zurich in 2007 as Senior Legal Counsel, was the Director of Regulatory Affairs at the Farmers Insurance Group, and then headed the Governance and Corporate Law team at the Corporate Center. Biedermann took on the role as Company Secretary & Head of Corporate Governance in 2018. She studied at the University of Zurich and graduated with a licentiate in laws (lic. iur.). In addition, she holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Business Law from King's College London. Biedermann is licensed to practice law in the Canton of Zurich.

Stefan Pleisch has headed up the Information & Technology division since February 2023. Before joining Zurich Switzerland, he led the IT business unit at Concordia Health Insurance and Retirement Provision Solutions from 2014 as a member of Executive Management, and also established the Innovation Lab there. Prior to this, he spent several years as Head of Division at ELCA Informatik AG in Zurich.

Stefan Pleisch studied computer science at EPFL in Lausanne, at ETH Zurich and at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and gained a doctorate from EPFL in 2002. He also worked in research in the IBM Research Lab in Rüschlikon, at the EPFL and at Cornell University in the USA. He has a Global Executive MBA from INSEAD Business School.

Claudia Flury has been Chief Risk Officer of Zurich Switzerland since May 2020. Prior to this, she held various management positions at the Zurich Group, amongst others within the Group Audit and most recently as Head of Planning and Performance Management of Zurich Switzerland. She started her career with PwC in 2002 and worked as an auditor in Switzerland and London before joining the Zurich Group in 2012. Claudia Flury holds a Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management from the Swiss Hospitality Management School in Lausanne (EHL) and is a certified public accountant.