ZURICH HOPES TO HAVE NEW CHAIRMAN BY NEXT AGM

Zurich Insurance Group, rocked last week by the suicide of chief financial officer Pierre Wauthier and, three days later, the resignation of chairman Josef Ackermann, hopes to have a new chairman in place and ready for election at next year's annual general meeting, acting chairman Tom de Swaan said on Friday. On the same conference call CEO Martin Senn said that the death of Mr Wauthier was definitely not the result of any financial difficulties at Zurich. Mr Senn's reassurances caused a rebound in the Zurich share price. Meanwhile, a colleague of ex-chairman Ackermann told Reuters that the reason Mr Ackermann quit was because Mr Wauthier's death would have prevented him pushing forward with the reforms at Zurich which he felt were needed. "He was not satisfied with Zurich's performance, which is why he campaigned to change this. When the CFO took his (own) life, it became clear to him that he could not keep up this pressure. Because of this, the chances of succeeding were called into question. That's why he resigned". Mr Ackermann's resignation statement, that he was stepping down over allegations that were unfounded, had baffled many observers, who felt that there must be another reason. However, details were beginning to emerge about Ackermann's period as chairman which indicated that his new style had not fitted well with the prevailing culture at Zurich – illustrated by the small but significant insistence that he have an office with a lake view, as well as bringing his own spokesman from his days at Deutsche Bank.