Gen Re has appointed Nancy Roos (pictured above) to the executive board of General Reinsurance AG, the reinsurance group's German-domiciled entity and main international risk carrier. She takes on the role from April 1, succeeding the retiring Mike O'Dea.
Roos has served as the entity's chief financial officer since 2019 and will continue in that capacity alongside her new board responsibilities.
Gen Re chairman Charlie Shamieh said Roos had led the international finance function through "an increasingly complex reporting and regulatory environment" since becoming CFO. He expressed confidence her institutional knowledge and leadership would complement the board.
That complexity has been considerable. General Reinsurance AG falls under the European Union's Solvency II framework, and Gen Re's finance team has in recent years navigated the global rollout of IFRS 17, the international accounting standard for insurance contracts that took effect in January 2023.
The company had begun building its IFRS 17 platform as early as 2018, describing the effort at the time as a comprehensive solution for the standard's requirements.
Roos was directly involved in those transformation programs. She joined Gen Re in 2001 as part of its general accounting team and rose through a series of senior finance roles, including international financial controller, before being named CFO.
The departing O'Dea served as Gen Re's global group CFO and a longstanding member of the General Reinsurance AG Executive Board. Before joining the reinsurer, he worked as a senior manager at Ernst & Young, his public professional profile shows.
Shamieh credited O'Dea with "exceptional leadership in spearheading large-scale global initiatives," including the implementation of major changes in accounting standards and systems.
In 2023, O'Dea had also played a direct hand in the entity's governance, announcing the appointment of Margaret McAuliffe as chief risk officer to the same board.
Shamieh said the company was grateful for his service and wished him well in retirement.
Gen Re is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which acquired General Re Corporation in 1998 for approximately $22 billion in what was then the conglomerate's largest deal.
The reinsurance group today reports $20 billion in capital and $14.8 billion in net premiums written globally, per company disclosures.
At the General Reinsurance AG level, gross written premium in property and casualty rose 9% to EUR2.115 billion in 2024, with an underwriting profit of EUR 256.5 million before equalization reserve changes, its latest annual report noted. The entity operates across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Africa.
