Mario Greco
Overview
Mario Greco | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 16 June 1959 Naples, Italy |
| Citizenship | Italian |
| Education | Degree in economics; master's in international economics and monetary theory |
| Alma mater | Sapienza University of Rome; University of Rochester |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Employer | Zurich Insurance Group |
| Known for | Turnarounds at Assicurazioni Generali and Zurich Insurance Group |
| Title | Group chief executive officer |
| Term | 2016–present |
| Predecessor | Martin Senn |
| Board member of | Unicredit; Mediobanca; Pirelli; Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso; Indesit; Saras; Bocconi University (former roles) |
| Spouse | Giovanna (m. 1986) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | European Insurance CEO of the Year (2004) |
💼 Mario Greco (born 16 June 1959) is an Italian business executive who has served as group chief executive officer of Zurich Insurance Group since 2016, having previously led Assicurazioni Generali and held senior positions at Allianz and Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà (RAS). His career has been marked by large-scale restructurings, including the turnaround of Generali in the early 2010s and the repositioning of Zurich as a more customer-centric, capital-disciplined insurer, making him one of the most prominent figures in the European insurance industry.[1][2]
Early life and education
🎓 Origins. Greco was born on 16 June 1959 in Naples, in southern Italy, a region with little tradition in global finance but a strong local business culture that later informed his reputation in the Italian press as an “iron Neapolitan” who succeeded in the more reserved corporate environment of Switzerland.[3][4]
📚 Academic training. He studied economics at the Sapienza University of Rome, graduating with a degree in 1983, before moving to the United States to complete a master’s degree in international economics and monetary theory at the University of Rochester in 1986, a combination that exposed him early to both Italian institutional traditions and Anglo-American analytical approaches to finance and macroeconomics.[4][1]
Career
🏢 Consulting and discovery of insurance. After completing his studies, Greco joined management consultancy McKinsey & Company in 1986, focusing on financial institutions and advising banks and insurers at a time when Italy’s insurance sector was widely viewed as conservative and slow-moving.[4] In 1989, seeking to be based closer to his wife in Milan as they awaited the birth of their first child, he accepted an assignment with an insurance client that colleagues regarded as a “boring backwater”, later recalling that he initially “knew nothing about insurance” but quickly came to appreciate the business and its technical complexity, a decision that set the course for the rest of his career.[2]
📈 Rise at RAS. In 1994 Greco left McKinsey to join Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà (RAS), then an Italian insurer within the Allianz group, where he rapidly progressed from head of the claims division in 1995 to general manager in 1996, managing director in 1998 and, at the age of 40, chief executive officer in 2000.[4][1] Under his leadership RAS grew strongly: annual premiums rose from roughly €10.8 billion to more than €16 billion, net profits nearly doubled between 2000 and 2004, and the share price more than doubled, performance that led to his recognition as European “Insurance CEO of the Year” in 2004 and established him as a leading figure in the sector.[2]
🏙 Value-creation strategies at RAS. One emblematic initiative of Greco’s tenure at RAS was a 2002 spin-off of the company’s real estate portfolio, which included high-profile assets such as Milan’s Torre Velasca; the transaction raised around €1.7 billion, proceeds that were largely returned to shareholders via a stock buyback rather than retained on the balance sheet, an approach to capital allocation that was then uncommon in Italy and drew favourable analyst attention.[3][2] Observers noted his preference for concise, data-rich presentations over lengthy speeches and described his style as direct and demanding—an approach that some saw as abrasive but which left a visible imprint on the organisations he led.[3]
🌍 Move to Allianz’s executive board. In late 2004 Allianz invited Greco to join its management board in Munich, giving him responsibility for insurance operations across several European markets as RAS was being fully integrated into the German group, a move that broadened his international exposure but also removed him from hands-on control of the Italian company he had reshaped.[3][1] Although the appointment represented a formal promotion, Greco later indicated that working in a group-wide board role, more distant from day-to-day line management, was less appealing than leading a business directly, a sentiment that would soon influence his decision to return to Italy.[2]
🏦 Eurizon Financial Group experiment. In April 2005 Greco left Allianz to lead a new financial conglomerate project backed by Sanpaolo IMI bank in Turin, later branded Eurizon Financial Group, which aimed to combine life insurance, asset management and a nationwide financial-adviser network into a standalone entity that could be floated via an initial public offering.[3] As chief executive he assembled EurizonVita, Eurizon Capital and the Banca Fideuram distribution channel, and the business quickly achieved profitability that he publicly compared favourably with peers, reflecting a broader European trend of integrating banking and insurance platforms.[4][2]
💥 Strategic reversal after Intesa–Sanpaolo merger. The Eurizon strategy was disrupted in 2006 when Sanpaolo IMI agreed to merge with Banca Intesa, creating Italy’s largest banking group and prompting a reconsideration of the insurance and asset-management structure, including shelving the planned Eurizon IPO.[3] Tensions surfaced in 2007 when Generali chairman Antoine Bernheim, whose company was a shareholder in the bank, publicly described Eurizon as “the real problem” in the merger, prompting Greco to respond that it was “surprising and disheartening” for a shareholder to label a profitable project a problem, but despite his defence he eventually negotiated his exit that year as the new group sought a different configuration for its insurance operations.[3][2]
🏛 First tenure at Zurich Insurance Group. Later in 2007 Greco joined Zurich Financial Services (now Zurich Insurance Group) in Switzerland as deputy chief executive of its Global Life division and soon became head of the unit, overseeing life insurance businesses worldwide and focusing on expanding partnership-based distribution while improving capital efficiency.[4] In 2010 he was appointed chief executive of Zurich’s General Insurance division, the group’s largest business, where he pursued a strategy of improving technical underwriting performance, reducing costs and increasing exposure to emerging markets, but when chief executive James Schiro stepped down that year the board chose another executive, Martin Senn, as group CEO, indicating a ceiling on Greco’s advancement within the organisation at that time.[2][1]
🏛️ Appointment to lead Assicurazioni Generali. In mid-2012, amid the eurozone crisis and internal governance disputes, Assicurazioni Generali’s board turned to Greco to replace its ousted chief executive and stabilise Italy’s largest insurer, which was burdened by debt, non-core participations and an opaque network of cross-shareholdings.[2][5] According to contemporaneous accounts, directors considered only Greco for the position, and some investors hailed him as a “prodigal son” of the Italian insurance industry returning to rescue its flagship group.[2]
🔧 Generali turnaround and restructuring. As chief executive of Generali from August 2012, Greco implemented a comprehensive restructuring programme focused on exiting non-core holdings, simplifying governance and strengthening capital, including the unwinding of cross-shareholdings with Italian corporate allies and disposals of operations in markets such as the United States, Mexico and Israel, which collectively raised several billion euros to reduce debt and avoid a dilutive rights issue.[2][5] He also launched a cost-cutting plan targeting €1 billion in savings, streamlined brands and information-technology systems in core markets, and introduced performance-linked remuneration for hundreds of senior managers, measures that contributed to a sharp recovery in Generali’s results, with net profit rising from €94 million in 2012 to about €1.9 billion in 2013 and the share price roughly doubling between his arrival and mid-2014.[2]
⚖️ Departure from Generali and move to Zurich. Despite the operational improvements at Generali, discussions over the renewal of Greco’s mandate became contentious towards the end of his first term, with reports of disagreement between him and major shareholders over the length and conditions of a new contract, and over questions of pay after the board had resisted increasing his compensation to retain him.[5] In January 2016 Greco announced that he would not stand for a second term and resigned with immediate effect, triggering a sharp fall in Generali’s share price, while shortly afterwards Zurich Insurance Group disclosed that it had hired him as its next chief executive, replacing Martin Senn following a difficult year marked by underwriting losses and a failed acquisition attempt of RSA Insurance Group.[6]
🏗 Reshaping Zurich Insurance Group. Taking office as group chief executive of Zurich Insurance Group in March 2016, Greco initiated an organisational restructuring that combined overlapping corporate and commercial units, simplified reporting lines and brought in external hires for some senior roles, including new leadership for the commercial insurance business.[7] He articulated a strategy of making Zurich “closer to the customer, faster and leaner”, shifting emphasis from being seen primarily as a payer of claims to being recognised for broader risk-management and service capabilities, while tightening underwriting standards in loss-making lines and reallocating capital away from volatile exposures.[8][2]
📊 Performance under Greco at Zurich. Within a few years of Greco’s arrival, Zurich’s financial performance strengthened markedly: operating profit increased, the group reported a roughly 20% rise in business operating profit to around US$4.6 billion by 2018, and net income growth supported an increase in the shareholder dividend, while the share price rose by close to 50% between 2016 and early 2019.[9] The group also reduced exposure to certain high-volatility lines, such as parts of US casualty and catastrophe business, in favour of more sustainable portfolios, and by the early 2020s Zurich was generating record results and became one of Europe’s largest insurers by market capitalisation and the most valuable financial company in Switzerland.[10][11]
📆 Recent strategic cycles. Under Greco’s leadership Zurich has launched successive multi-year strategic plans emphasising profitability, capital discipline and growth in selected markets, including an expanded focus on Asia and on service-oriented offerings such as risk-prevention tools and digital platforms for both retail and corporate customers.[8][12] As of early 2026 he remains at the helm of Zurich Insurance Group, overseeing a workforce of more than 50,000 employees and steering the company through an environment characterised by inflationary pressures, climate-related losses and geopolitical uncertainty.[1][11]
💶 Executive remuneration. Greco’s remuneration has reflected both the seniority of his positions and the financial performance of the companies he has led, with his total compensation at Generali reported at around €3.25 million in 2014 and his package at Zurich rising as profitability improved, including a year in which the vesting of performance shares significantly increased his overall pay.[5][9] For the 2023 and 2024 financial years, Zurich disclosed that he received total remuneration of approximately CHF 9.83 million and CHF 9.88 million respectively, composed of a base salary of around CHF 2.34 million and variable components tied to short- and long-term performance measures, positioning him among the highest-paid insurance chief executives in Europe.[11][13]
📈 Shareholdings and wealth. In addition to salary and bonuses, Greco holds shares in Zurich Insurance Group that he has accumulated through incentive plans and personal investment; public filings indicate that he owns roughly 0.08% of the company, a stake valued at tens of millions of Swiss francs based on recent market prices, making his personal wealth heavily linked to the insurer’s long-term performance.[14][9] While no public estimate of his overall net worth exists, his decades at the top of European finance have likely resulted in a substantial personal fortune, though he has not cultivated a public persona around wealth and does not appear on billionaire rankings.[2][11]
🏛️ Board positions and advisory roles. Over the course of his career Greco has served on the boards of several major Italian and European companies, including banking groups such as Unicredit and Mediobanca, industrial and media firms such as Pirelli, Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, Indesit and Saras, and the advisory board of Bocconi University in Milan, roles that reflected both his expertise in financial services and his connections within Italian business circles.[4][2] Since becoming chief executive of Zurich he has gradually reduced outside directorships to avoid conflicts of interest and to focus on the insurer, but he has continued to participate in international forums and is a member of bodies such as the World Economic Forum’s stewardship structures for the digital economy and society.[12]
🏥 Philanthropy and corporate foundations. In 2002, during his time at RAS, Greco launched the Umanamente foundation, which channelled a portion of company profits into social and medical initiatives in Italy, supporting projects in areas such as children’s health and arts-based therapy, and he chaired the foundation in its early years as part of an effort to formalise the group’s social-responsibility activities.[4][2] His later involvement with academic institutions, particularly Bocconi University, has included mentoring students and supporting programmes related to management education and leadership, further extending his influence beyond purely corporate roles.[4]
Personal life and interests
👨👩👧👦 Family and background. Greco has been married to his wife, Giovanna, since 1986, a partnership that began during his university years and continued through moves to Rome, Milan, Munich, Trieste and Zurich as his career advanced.[2][3] The couple have two children, a son and a daughter, who studied in Italy in fields such as law and biotechnology, and the family has maintained strong ties to the country even while residing primarily in Switzerland during Greco’s tenure at Zurich Insurance Group.[2][4]
🏇 Connections and social milieu. Reporting in the Italian press has noted that Giovanna comes from a family with links to prominent figures in the Turin and Milan business communities, including relatives connected to lawyer Franzo Grande Stevens, long associated with the Agnelli family, although Greco’s career has not been characterised as dependent on any single industrial clan.[3] The couple divide their time mainly between Zurich and Italy, particularly Milan, balancing Greco’s corporate responsibilities with family life and periodic returns to their home country.[2]
🚴 Sporting interests and lifestyle. Outside work Greco is known as an enthusiastic cyclist, frequently riding around Lake Zurich and in the surrounding hills and using long rides as a way to clear his mind, while his wife is an avid equestrian who spends considerable time with horses and stables, a combination that has been characterised as emblematic of their shared preference for active, outdoor pursuits.[2][3] He also skis during the winter and occasionally participates in corporate or charity sporting events, though these activities are generally kept low-profile rather than promoted as part of a public brand.[2]
🧠 Personality and management style. Accounts from colleagues and journalists consistently describe Greco as analytical, detail-oriented and demanding, often delving deeply into numerical data and expecting his executives to be similarly prepared, with one Italian profile remarking that “diplomacy is not his strong suit” but that his directness leaves a lasting mark on the organisations he leads.[3][2] He tends to be reserved and soft-spoken in small settings but more forceful and uncompromising in the boardroom, and he has cultivated a lean personal profile, avoiding ostentatious displays and limiting his public presence to select interviews and industry events.[2]
🎭 Cultural interests. Greco has expressed an interest in culture and the arts, particularly classic Italian opera—unsurprising given his years spent in Milan, home to the La Scala opera house—and modern art, though these remain personal pursuits rather than components of a curated public image.[2] His occasional lectures at universities in Italy and Switzerland, focusing on leadership and the future of insurance, have combined his professional experience with reflections on broader economic and social trends, drawing on his exposure to international debates through organisations such as the World Economic Forum.[4][12]
Views, challenges and public debates
🏛 Corporate politics and governance challenges. Greco’s career has been largely free of personal scandal, but he has navigated complex corporate politics, including perceived rivalries within Allianz before his departure to Eurizon and resistance from elements of Generali’s traditional shareholder base to his efforts to unwind cross-shareholdings and reduce the influence of long-entrenched interests.[3][2] The breakdown of negotiations over his second term at Generali, culminating in his resignation in 2016 despite the company’s improved financial position, was seen by some commentators as a principled refusal to continue without clear support for his strategic agenda, while others criticised the move as abrupt in light of the challenges still facing the group.[5][6]
💻 Cyber risk and insurability. In late 2022 Greco attracted attention by warning in an interview that certain forms of cyber-attack could become “uninsurable” if they reached systemic dimensions, citing the potential for large-scale hacks to disrupt critical infrastructure and exceed the capacity of private insurers alone, comments that were widely reported and sparked debate about the need for new public-private risk-sharing arrangements.[15][12] Some industry participants worried that such statements might unsettle customers or regulators, while Greco later emphasised that the intent was to highlight the importance of strengthening cyber-security and clarifying the boundary between insurable and uninsurable systemic risks.[15]
🌡 Climate change and catastrophe risk. Greco has been an outspoken voice on climate change, arguing that while rising temperatures and more frequent extreme-weather events will increase losses and premiums in high-risk areas, catastrophe risks will remain insurable provided pricing and risk-prevention measures adjust accordingly, and he has rejected more alarmist narratives that suggest climate-related risks will become entirely uninsurable.[10] Under his leadership Zurich has committed to measures such as withdrawing from new coal projects and aligning parts of its portfolio with climate-transition goals, positioning the group as a relatively early mover among large insurers on decarbonisation policies.[10][12]
💼 Private capital in insurance. In the mid-2020s Greco also joined debates about the expansion of private-equity firms and “asset-gatherers” into insurance, particularly in the United States, warning that a focus on maximising investment yields could, if not properly regulated, conflict with the long-term risk-management obligations of insurers towards policyholders.[16] These remarks aligned with concerns voiced by some supervisors about the growth of non-traditional insurance ownership structures, while private-equity groups defended their role as providers of capital and innovation to the sector.[16]
🌐 Digitalisation and the future of insurance. Through his involvement in World Economic Forum initiatives and Zurich-sponsored reports on the digital economy, Greco has argued that digitalisation is one of the most powerful forces reshaping society and that insurers must adapt by using data and technology to enhance resilience without undermining trust, for example by applying artificial intelligence to support underwriting decisions while maintaining human oversight and clear ethical guidelines.[12] He has linked these themes to broader policy discussions about digital identities, cyber-security and the role of cross-border cooperation in managing systemic risks in an increasingly interconnected world.[12][15]
Legacy and recognition
🏅 Reputation as a turnaround specialist. Over four decades in the insurance industry, Greco has earned a reputation as a turnaround specialist capable of imposing discipline and focus on complex organisations, from his early restructuring and value-creation initiatives at RAS, through the post-crisis transformation of Generali, to the consolidation and performance improvement at Zurich Insurance Group.[2][10] Italian media have characterised him as “il napoletano di ferro”, the “man of steel from Naples”, highlighting the perception that he combined southern Italian tenacity with an international management style in successfully leading major Swiss and Italian institutions.[3]
🌍 Cosmopolitan profile and potential future roles. Greco’s career, which has taken him from Naples to Rome, Milan, Munich, Trieste and Zurich, has often been cited as emblematic of a new generation of European executives comfortable in both domestic and global contexts, and he is a regular participant at events such as the annual Ambrosetti Forum on Lake Como, where he speaks on global risk and insurance.[2][12] Commentators in Italy have occasionally speculated about whether his expertise could one day be deployed in public service, for example in a technocratic government, but as of early 2026 he remains firmly focused on his role at Zurich, overseeing the group’s latest strategic cycle and continuing to influence debates on risk, resilience and the future of insurance.[1][11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Mario Greco". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 2.26 "Mario Greco Restores Focus, and Profits, at Italy's Generali". Institutional Investor. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 "Greco, il napoletano di ferro che ha conquistato gli svizzeri". La Repubblica. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 "Mario Greco – Curriculum Vitae". Intesa Sanpaolo Group. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Is Generali CEO Greco Leaving for Zurich? Investors Worry". Carrier Management / Reuters. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Generali Shares Drop on Greco's Decision to Join Zurich as CEO". Insurance Journal. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Zurich Insurance Combines Corporate and Commercial Units". Finews. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Financial Times profile of Mario Greco". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Zurich CEO in line for $13.3 million payday". Insurance Business. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "INTERVIEW – Mario Greco, CEO of Zurich Insurance: Climate will become costly, but not uninsurable". MarketScreener. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 "Zurich CEO Mario Greco earned 9.88 million francs". Blue News. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 "Our Shared Digital Future". Zurich Insurance Group. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ "Zurich Insurance Group AG – Leadership & Management Team". Simply Wall St. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Are Cyber Attacks at Risk of Becoming "Uninsurable"?". Government Technology. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Zurich chief raises concerns over private capital's growing role in insurance". Insurance Business. Retrieved 2025-11-20.