Thierry Léger, who will take, in May, the general management of the fourth global reinsurer, is the third boss chosen in two and a half years by the board of directors.
by Isabelle Chaperon, Dominique Gallois and Marc Angrand
Everything is a matter of perspective. Denis Kessler, the president of Scor, is good to underline the incredible managerial stability of the reinsurer, who had only one CEO in nineteen years: him. However, since the emblematic boss abandoned the general management on June 30, 2021, it is another pair of sleeves.
Thierry Léger, the Franco-Swiss who will take orders on 1 er May, is the third successor of Mr. Kessler dubbed in two and a half years by the board of directors of Scor. A bad point in the eyes of the American rating agency Moody’s, which degraded, Friday, February 3, the credit note of the reinsurer. For her, this floating puts the new direction under increased pressure, which “increases the risks of execution in the implementation of a new strategic plan”.
m. Kessler, 70, is not the first employers’ figure whose succession plan is undergoing failures. From Jean-Louis Beffa to Pierre Fabre, many great caimans of French capitalism had an annoying tendency to bite the dolphin. Difficult for some to hand over, as they identify with their business.
The former professor of economy denies it. “The only thing that drives me is to make sure that the company I have devoted to half of my professional life grows and embellish by remaining independent, assures the one whose mandate of president will end, In May 2024, during the General Assembly. I want to leave by leaving a business in good order. “A conviction all the more anchored as the old number two of the Medef is the rectifier of this financial institution on the edge of the abyss Twenty years ago. Called to the rescue one Sunday in Toussaint, in November 2002, Mr. Kesssler made it a world number four.
Surprise
Reinsurance is a funny job. It consists in taking the risks whose insurers themselves want to get rid of, because they consider them too random, too heavy, too complex. This requires sacred expertise to properly model the extension of the lifespan or the occurrence of earthquakes and avoid ending up with claims on all stages.
Hence the surprise, when the board of directors of Scor announces, on December 16, 2020, that Benoît Ribadeau-Dumas, former director of the cabinet of Edouard Philippe in Matignon, who came from industry, will become director General, “at the end of the annual general meeting of 2022”. In truth, behind the unanimity of the facade, the “board” was shared. About half of the administrators had supported the other finalist, Frédéric de Courtois, then at the Italian insurer Generali.
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