Zurich Insurance Finance Chief Wauthier Found Dead

Zurich Insurance Group AG (ZURN), the biggest Swiss insurer, announced that their Chief Financial Officer Pierre Wauthier,53 was found dead at his home yesterday.

Police officers are investigating how he died, the company said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday. They declined to disclose further details.  Officials found no indications of third-party involvement in the death, Marcel Schlatter, a police spokesman said.

“The board of directors, group executive committee and all of our colleagues are deeply saddened and pass on our condolences to the family and relatives,” Chief Executive Officer Martin Senn said in the statement.

The police ordered an autopsy to determine the cause of death, according to Schlatter. He said that Wauthier lived in Walchwil, a municipality with about 3,591 residents on the eastern shore of Lake Zug.
KPMG, JPMorgan

Wauthier, who held a master’s degree in international finance from l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales and a Masters in private law from the Sorbonne University in Paris, began his career at KPMG in 1982, according to Zurich Insurance’s website. He worked for two years at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and joined JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM:US) in 1985, before taking on the job at Zurich Insurance.

Zurich Insurance, based in Zurich, said on Aug. 15 that floods in central Europe and tornadoes in the U.S. contributed to a 27 percent decline in second-quarter net income to $789 million, missing analysts’ estimates.

The shares fell 1.8 percent to 239 francs by 10:48 a.m. in Zurich, valuing the company at 35.4 billion francs ($38 billion).