Andreas Berger

Overview

Andreas Berger
Born	c. 1966 Rwanda
Citizenship	Germany
Education	Master's degree in law; MBA
Alma mater	Justus Liebig University Giessen; Université Paris-Dauphine
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	Swiss Re
Known for	Leadership of Swiss Re and turnaround of its Corporate Solutions division
Title	Group Chief Executive Officer
Term	2024–present
Predecessor	Christian Mumenthaler
Board member of	Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce; economiesuisse; Geneva Association; Insurance Development Forum; St. Gallen Foundation for International Studies; Avenir Suisse; Advance
Children	1

🌍 Andreas Berger (born in the mid-1960s) is a Rwandan-born German business executive who has served as Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Swiss Re, the Zurich-based reinsurance group, since 1 July 2024. Previously head of Swiss Re's Corporate Solutions division and a member of the group executive committee, he has been credited with returning that business to profitability before assuming leadership of the entire company. Having earlier held senior roles at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, the Gerling Group and the Boston Consulting Group, Berger is regarded as a specialist in corporate and reinsurance markets who combines legal and business training with a strongly international background. Raised in Rwanda, Portugal and Germany and educated in Giessen and Paris, he leads Swiss Re with an emphasis on disciplined underwriting, data-driven decision-making and long-term resilience in the face of natural catastrophes and emerging risks.

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Early life and education

🧒 Childhood and upbringing. Berger was born in Rwanda in the mid-1960s and spent parts of his childhood in Rwanda, Portugal and Germany, giving him early exposure to different cultures and languages. This international background has frequently been cited as a foundation for the global perspective he later brought to senior roles in the insurance industry.

🎓 Legal and business training. After completing his secondary education in Germany, Berger studied law at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, where he obtained a master's degree in law, before pursuing a master's in business administration through a joint programme between Université Paris-Dauphine (Paris IX) and Giessen. The combination of legal and management education has been described as shaping his analytical, contract-focused approach to underwriting and his pragmatic attitude to business strategy, characteristics that recur in assessments of his later leadership of Swiss Re.

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Career

🏢 Early career in insurance and consulting. Berger began his professional career in 1995 at the German insurer Gerling Group, joining as a trainee and gaining his first experience in industrial and commercial insurance. After several formative years he moved into management consulting with the Boston Consulting Group, broadening his expertise in corporate strategy and operational improvement. In 2004 he returned to Gerling to lead its commercial business and international programmes, a role that placed him in charge of complex multinational insurance portfolios and introduced him to the challenges of coordinating coverage across jurisdictions.

🛡️ Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. In 2006 Berger joined Allianz as the group created Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS), its dedicated corporate insurance arm, and he was appointed Global Head of Market Management and Communication. In this position he established a centralised market management function for large corporate clients and acted as spokesperson for AGCS, reinforcing the brand in the global corporate insurance market. In 2009 he became Chief Executive Officer of AGCS's Regional Unit London, responsible for business in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, the Middle East and the Benelux countries, and in 2011 he joined the AGCS Board of Management as Chief Regions and Markets Officer with oversight of business in Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia as well as global broker distribution.

🔁 Move to Swiss Re and Corporate Solutions turnaround. Berger left Allianz in 2019 to join Swiss Re as Chief Executive Officer of its Corporate Solutions division, the group’s commercial insurance business, and at the same time became a member of Swiss Re's group executive committee. Corporate Solutions had suffered a period of underwriting losses, and Swiss Re's board hired him with a mandate to restore profitability; under his leadership the division underwent a restructuring that focused on tighter underwriting discipline and portfolio pruning and returned to profit over the following years. The improvement in results at Corporate Solutions, combined with the broader recovery of Swiss Re after a difficult 2022, led analysts and the board to view Berger as a key architect of the group’s renewed momentum.

📈 Group Chief Executive Officer. On 1 July 2024 Berger succeeded Christian Mumenthaler as Group CEO of Swiss Re, following what commentators described as an orderly succession endorsed unanimously by the board. He took over at a time when Swiss Re's net profit for 2023 had risen by around 580 per cent compared with the previous year, marking a sharp rebound after large losses in 2022. In outlining his agenda, Berger emphasised continuity, stating that his focus was on fostering "a culture of achievement, execution and results" while upholding Swiss Re's longstanding values. In operational terms, he strengthened the group's reserves, increased the dividend and reiterated two priorities for the coming years: delivering on financial targets and increasing the resilience of the group. Under his leadership Swiss Re reported net income of USD 4.0 billion for the first nine months of 2025, an increase of around 85 per cent year-on-year, supported by strong underwriting results and fewer major losses, while the company's share price rose by more than one-third and the higher dividend attracted positive comment from shareholders. Analysts noted that reinsurance pricing and conditions were particularly favourable in this period, framing Berger's main challenge as converting supportive market conditions into sustainable profitability through consistent execution.

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Leadership and management style

🤖 Digitalisation and data-driven risk management. During his tenure as head of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Berger championed the use of data and technology to manage complex corporate risks, launching a Risk Data & Services platform designed to help clients analyse exposures such as supply-chain disruptions and operational bottlenecks. He has argued that "our world has changed" and that risk is "accelerating" and increasingly interconnected, contending that boards require a holistic view of risk that goes beyond purchasing traditional insurance covers. As Group CEO he has continued this agenda at Swiss Re, highlighting the firm's use of around 50 scientists and some 200 models, assisted by artificial intelligence, to forecast natural catastrophes and improve underwriting and claims processes, including cutting the turnaround time for some construction insurance quotations from several weeks to around a day. Berger's approach blends the conservative underwriting culture of a traditional reinsurer with incremental technological change, positioning Swiss Re as a company seeking to "future-proof" its franchise rather than radically disrupt its core business.

🧭 Emphasis on execution and resilience. Commentators frequently describe Berger's leadership style as combining legal and analytical rigour with an approachable, team-oriented manner, a blend shaped by his legal training and experience in consultancy as well as line management roles. He regularly stresses "execution" and accountability, but has also publicly thanked his predecessors and colleagues, framing Swiss Re's progress as a collective achievement rather than a personal project. In investor communications he has adopted a cautious tone, arguing that the company must avoid "squeezing the lemon dry" by chasing short-term earnings at the expense of long-term resilience and warning that in areas such as cyber insurance the industry still lacks full understanding of the causes of losses. This combination of prudence and openness to innovation has contributed to a reputation for measured, steady-handed leadership within the reinsurance sector.

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Compensation and wealth

💼 Executive remuneration. As Group CEO of Swiss Re, Berger receives compensation typical of senior executives in European financial services but below some of the highest-paid peers in global banking and insurance. In 2024, a year in which he spent the first half leading Corporate Solutions and the second half heading the group, his total disclosed remuneration amounted to about CHF 5.16 million, including base salary, short-term bonuses and the grant-date value of long-term incentive awards. Roughly four-fifths of this package is variable and linked to performance, with fixed salary making up only around 20 per cent, reflecting the company's policy of tying executive pay closely to financial results and risk-adjusted targets. Berger also holds shares in Swiss Re, directly owning a small stake of about 0.004 per cent of the company with an estimated value of roughly CHF 1.5 million, giving him a modest personal financial interest in the firm's performance but leaving overall control firmly with institutional and other shareholders.

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Industry roles and influence

🌐 Business associations and industry forums. Beyond his executive duties, Berger plays an active role in business and insurance associations. He serves as chairman of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, representing the interests of Swiss and United States companies, and sits on the board of economiesuisse, Switzerland's main business federation. In the insurance sector he is a board member of the Geneva Association, the international association of insurance and risk leaders, and is involved in the Pan-European Insurance Forum and the Global Reinsurance Forum, platforms that bring together executives from leading European and global insurers and reinsurers. Berger is also a member of the executive committee of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, reflecting his engagement with debates on sustainability and corporate responsibility.

🏛️ Thought leadership and policy engagement. Berger's wider interests include education, public policy and sustainable development. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the St. Gallen Foundation for International Studies, which organises the St. Gallen Symposium, and supports the Swiss think tank Avenir Suisse, both of which focus on long-term economic and governance issues. In addition, he is associated with the Insurance Development Forum, a public–private initiative that seeks to expand insurance coverage and resilience in emerging markets, and with Advance, a Swiss organisation promoting gender equality in business, roles that underline his advocacy of broader access to risk protection and more diverse leadership pipelines in the corporate world.

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Personal life

👨‍👩‍👦 Family background. Berger keeps most details of his private life out of the public eye, but available information indicates that he is married to a South African spouse and has one son. His own international upbringing and his family's multinational background mirror the global scope of his professional responsibilities. He holds German citizenship and has spent much of his career based in major European financial centres while travelling extensively for work.

🌏 Cosmopolitan identity. Colleagues and commentators have described Berger as cosmopolitan and culturally fluent, reflecting his childhood in Rwanda, Portugal and Germany and his subsequent studies and career in German- and French-speaking environments. His professional roles have required him to work primarily in German and English, and congratulatory messages on his appointment as Group CEO referred to an "amazing journey" spanning more than three decades in insurance, underscoring the long-standing relationships he has built in the sector. While public sources offer little detail on his hobbies, interviews and public statements suggest an interest in global economic trends, technology and sustainability, themes that closely parallel the strategic priorities he pursues at Swiss Re.

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Challenges and controversies

⚖️ Investor expectations and capital allocation. Berger's tenure as Group CEO has not been marked by personal scandal, but he has faced scrutiny over Swiss Re's financial targets and capital deployment. At an investor day in late 2025 the company presented guidance for net income of about USD 4.5 billion in 2026, only slightly above expected earnings for 2025 and below consensus analyst forecasts of roughly USD 4.8 billion, prompting a fall of around 7.5 per cent in Swiss Re's share price on the day of the announcement. Some investors also criticised the scale of a USD 500 million share buyback, Swiss Re's first in several years, as modest relative to the group's capital position. In response, Berger stressed that "market conditions were not easy" and, when asked whether the company could do more, replied that he did not want to "squeeze the lemon dry", signalling a preference for preserving resilience over maximising short-term distributions.

🌡️ Competition, climate risk and emerging exposures. Analysts have long compared Swiss Re's profitability with that of Munich Re and other major reinsurers, and Berger has been under pressure to narrow or close any gap in returns. His publicly stated strategy has been to maintain strict underwriting discipline, grow selectively in attractive segments and remain "open to inorganic opportunities" such as acquisitions only on a judicious basis rather than pursuing expansion at any price. On environmental, social and governance issues he has argued that rising catastrophe losses reflect both climate change and the increasing concentration of people and assets in exposed areas, emphasising the need for better adaptation as well as mitigation. Under his leadership Swiss Re has continued to scale back support for the most carbon-intensive projects, while remaining active in climate research and advocacy through publications and industry forums such as the Geneva Association and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. In the field of cyber insurance Berger has cautioned that the industry still does not fully understand the causes of losses and has indicated that Swiss Re will approach growth in this segment carefully, reflecting his broader tendency to balance opportunity with risk awareness.

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Legacy and outlook

📊 Impact on Swiss Re. Although Berger has only recently become Group CEO, commentators already credit him with contributing to Swiss Re's recovery after a difficult period marked by large natural catastrophe and pandemic-related losses. The turnaround of Corporate Solutions, achieved before his promotion, demonstrated his willingness to shrink or exit unprofitable business lines, and as group chief he has focused on consolidating underwriting improvements, strengthening reserves and restoring shareholder confidence through higher and more predictable returns. By late 2025 Swiss Re had reported significantly higher profits, an increased dividend and a strong capital position, while investors and media commentary pointed to a more stable earnings profile than in the early 2020s.

🔮 Future challenges. Looking ahead, Berger faces the task of sustaining performance in a cyclical and increasingly complex reinsurance market characterised by climate-related events, inflation, geopolitical tensions and emerging risks such as cyber attacks and intangible asset exposures. Public statements suggest that he sees Swiss Re's role as helping to "make the world more resilient", framing the company's mission in terms that extend beyond purely financial metrics while still emphasising disciplined risk selection and capital management. His tenure is likely to be judged on whether he can maintain the balance between prudence and growth, closing any profitability gaps with leading competitors while ensuring that Swiss Re remains robust in the face of large losses and able to support clients and societies in managing an expanding spectrum of risks.

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