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Thomas Buberl

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"Customers want more from us than paying bills. We need to go on a journey and become a partner for our customers."

— Thomas Buberl[1]

Overview

Thomas Buberl
Buberl in 2021
Born1973 (age 51–52)
Cologne, Germany
CitizenshipGerman, Swiss, French
EducationMaster's in economics; MBA; PhD in economics
Alma materWHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management; Lancaster University; University of St. Gallen
OccupationBusiness executive
EmployerAXA
Known forCEO of AXA; climate-focused insurance strategy
TitleCEO of AXA
Term2016–present
PredecessorHenri de Castries
Board member ofAXA; IBM; Bertelsmann
SpouseMarried (wife from South Africa)
Children2
AwardsYoung Global Leader (World Economic Forum, 2008); French state honours including the Legion of Honour (Chevalier)

ℹ️ Thomas Buberl (born 1973) is a German-born business executive who has been chief executive officer (CEO) and director of AXA since 1 September 2016.[3] Educated in Germany, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, he began his career at Boston Consulting Group before holding senior positions at Winterthur Group and Zurich Insurance Group.[4][5] As AXA's CEO he has led a strategic shift away from interest-rate-sensitive life insurance towards property and casualty and health lines, completed the acquisition of Axa XL and made the group a prominent voice in climate and sustainability debates within the insurance industry.[6][7] Buberl also serves on the boards of IBM and Bertelsmann and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum.[8][9][10]

Early life and education

🎶 Musical beginnings. Born in 1973 in Cologne, Buberl grew up in a German family and as a teenager initially aspired to become a professional pipe organist, practising extensively and considering a conservatory career until a failed singing exam persuaded him to abandon the idea.[6][10] He later described this setback as a turning point that led him to redirect his energy towards academic study and organisational life rather than performance.[10]

🎓 Academic training. After completing his schooling in Germany, Buberl earned a master's degree in economics from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, an MBA from Lancaster University in England and a PhD in economics from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.[4][11] During his studies he participated in a student exchange in Paris, where he improved his French to near-native level and became accustomed to working in multicultural teams, experiences he has credited with shaping his collaborative leadership style.[6][10] In 2008 the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader, signalling his emergence as a rising figure in international business.[4]

Career

💼 Consulting and early industry roles. Buberl began his professional career in 2000 at Boston Consulting Group, where he specialised in advising banks and insurers in Germany and abroad on strategy and operations.[4] In 2005 he moved into line management at Winterthur Group in Switzerland, serving on the management board first as chief operating officer and later as chief marketing and distribution officer during a period when the business was being integrated into AXA.[4][6] In 2008 he joined Zurich Insurance Group as chief executive of its Swiss operations, giving him his first experience running a national insurance franchise.[5]

🏢 Rise within AXA. In 2012 Buberl returned to the AXA orbit when he was appointed chief executive of AXA Konzern AG, the group's German subsidiary, and joined the group executive committee.[3] Within three years he was promoted to lead AXA’s global health business line and became a member of the group management committee, before being named head of life and savings and deputy chief executive officer in early 2016.[5][3] In March 2016 long-serving chairman and CEO Henri de Castries announced his departure, and the board chose Buberl, then in his early forties and relatively new to the group, to succeed him as CEO while separating the chair and chief executive roles.[6] He formally took over as group CEO and director on 1 September 2016, with Denis Duverne becoming non-executive chairman.[3][12]

🔄 Strategic pivot and major transactions. Taking charge in a period of prolonged low interest rates, Buberl concluded that AXA was overly dependent on guaranteed savings products and traditional life insurance, which accounted for the vast majority of the group’s business when he took office.[10] He championed a reorientation towards property and casualty and health insurance, culminating in a two-step transaction in 2018 in which AXA floated a large portion of its United States life-insurance subsidiary and used the proceeds to acquire Axa XL, a major global commercial and reinsurance franchise, for about US$15.3 billion (€12.4 billion).[6][7] The surprise timing and size of the Axa XL deal initially provoked sharp criticism from some analysts and investors, and AXA’s share price fell in the immediate aftermath, but Buberl defended the move as essential to reposition the group for long-term growth and risk diversification.[6][10]

⚙️ Operational transformation and cost programme. Alongside the portfolio shift, Buberl launched a broad efficiency programme targeting multi-billion-euro cost savings and aiming to streamline AXA’s structures.[6][13] The initiative included withdrawing from lower-margin life products, investing heavily in digital capabilities and data analytics, and simplifying reporting lines to give more autonomy to regional and country CEOs.[14][13] In Belgium, for example, AXA announced plans to cut around 650 positions—about 15 percent of the local workforce—while investing in digital distribution, a move management framed as necessary to keep the business profitable in a changing market.[14]

📈 Financial performance and strategic plans. After integration costs and restructuring weighed on results in 2018–2019, AXA’s profitability improved markedly, with net income and underlying earnings rebounding as the new portfolio mix took effect.[6][15] Between 2020 and 2023 the group delivered strong earnings growth and a total shareholder return of around three-quarters, narrowing the gap with leading European peers such as Allianz.[16] In 2024 AXA unveiled a new three-year plan under which Buberl aims to focus on organic growth, particularly among mid-sized businesses, and to increase shareholder distributions to about 75 percent of underlying earnings while eschewing large acquisitions.[17][15] AXA’s board has repeatedly endorsed his leadership, proposing in 2022 and again in 2025 to renew his mandate as CEO for additional four-year terms.[18][19]

🌍 External mandates and honours. Beyond AXA, Buberl has accumulated a portfolio of external roles, serving as a director of IBM since 2020 and as a member of the supervisory board of Bertelsmann VerwaltungsGesellschaft in Germany, as well as holding a position on the Board of Trustees of the World Economic Forum.[8][9][5] He has also been associated with venture capital firm Redalpine as a venture partner.[20] Various institutions have recognised his contributions to business and public policy, including the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader designation in 2008 and several French state honours, among them the Legion of Honour and the Ordre national du Mérite at the rank of Chevalier.[4][5]

Compensation and wealth

💰 Remuneration policy and pay levels. Buberl’s remuneration as AXA’s chief executive has been closely watched by investors and proxy advisers, particularly given the group’s transformation under his leadership.[21] For several years after he became CEO in 2016, his fixed salary and target bonus were held steady, reflecting a cautious approach during a period of strategic repositioning.[21] In 2022 AXA’s board proposed raising his fixed annual salary to €1.65 million and setting his target annual bonus at €1.75 million, lifting his maximum theoretical annual compensation, including long-term stock incentives, from about €5.8 million to €6.9 million.[21][22] Proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services criticised the increase as insufficiently justified, but AXA argued that even after the raise his pay remained below that of CEOs at comparable European insurers and would be frozen for the duration of his 2022–2026 term.[21]

🪙 Recent compensation and share ownership. Subsequent disclosures show that Buberl’s total compensation fluctuates with AXA’s performance, given the heavy weight of variable and long-term components.[16][23] For 2023 his total pay was reported at around €5.9 million, with roughly 28 percent in fixed salary and the remainder split between annual bonuses and long-term incentive plans linked to underlying earnings and capital strength metrics.[16][22] Company filings emphasise that the formula for his variable compensation ties 70 percent of the outcome to group performance and 30 percent to individual performance, each capped at 130 percent of target.[22][23]

🧾 Wealth and external income. In addition to his AXA remuneration, Buberl receives fees and equity awards for his non-executive directorship at IBM, which have been estimated in the low hundreds of thousands of US dollars per year.[8][24] Analysts have noted that a sizeable portion of his personal wealth is invested in AXA shares acquired through incentive schemes and personal purchases, aligning his financial interests with those of other shareholders.[16] Public sources do not provide a consolidated estimate of his net worth, and Buberl has kept a comparatively low profile on personal finance matters, with media coverage focusing primarily on the structure and governance of his pay rather than on lifestyle disclosures.[21][25]

Personal life

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family and residence. Buberl is married to a woman originally from South Africa, and the couple have two children.[25][6] The family lives in the western suburbs of Paris, close to AXA’s headquarters, and colleagues have commented that he guards weekends and holidays as time reserved for his family despite the demands of running a large multinational group.[25][6]

🏇 Interests and hobbies. Reflecting his early ambitions, music remains important to Buberl, who has spoken about how practising the pipe organ taught him discipline and creativity even though he did not pursue it professionally.[10][6] He is also an enthusiastic runner who uses long runs to think through strategic issues, and he has described horse-riding as more than a pastime, calling the connection with the animal and the concentration it demands a source of energy and inspiration.[6][20]

⚓ Citizenship and military reserve service. Having worked in several European countries, Buberl holds German, Swiss and French citizenship; he obtained French nationality in 2021 after years of living and working in the country.[6] In France he serves as a reserve officer in the French Navy, an unusual role for a corporate chief executive that underlines his integration into French public life and his interest in structured, team-based challenges.[6][12] French commentators and policymakers have pointed to him as a bridge figure between France and Germany in business matters, regularly noting his fluency in both languages and his ease in navigating the corporate cultures of each country.[12][6]

🧠 Leadership style and personality. Accounts from colleagues and journalists portray Buberl as a methodical and detail-oriented manager who combines a collegial tone with high performance expectations.[6][25] He is known to prepare extensively for meetings, encourage data-driven debate and then push for rapid execution once decisions are taken, and he has been willing to reshape leadership teams when results fall short.[6][26] Profiles also highlight quirks such as his interest in designing his own shoes to achieve a perfect fit, as well as his habit of mentoring younger managers and participating in teaching and speaking engagements on leadership.[6][11]

Challenges and controversies

🧭 Appointment as a non-French chief executive. When AXA announced in 2016 that Buberl, a comparatively young German manager, would succeed Henri de Castries as CEO, some observers in France questioned whether an outsider could fully embody the culture of a flagship French financial institution.[12][6] Early commentary in the French press framed his nomination as a “cultural exception”, and internally several long-serving executives who had been passed over were reported to be sceptical.[12] Buberl responded by rapidly intensifying his engagement with French stakeholders, conducting town-hall meetings in French, meeting AXA’s founding figures such as Claude Bébéar and emphasising continuity with the group’s heritage, steps that helped to quiet concerns over his background.[6][25]

📉 Market reaction to the Axa XL acquisition. The 2018 acquisition of Axa XL represented the most contentious strategic move of Buberl’s tenure, drawing criticism over both price and timing.[6] Announced shortly before the full spin-off of AXA’s United States life-insurance arm, the deal led to a sharp fall in AXA’s share price and prompted questions from analysts about integration risks and capital management.[6][13] At subsequent shareholder meetings Buberl defended the acquisition as central to reducing the group’s exposure to interest-rate-sensitive business and building a leading position in commercial P&C and reinsurance; as the combined portfolio delivered stronger results and the earnings mix shifted towards non-life, many of the initial critics softened their stance.[6][15]

⚖️ Restructuring and labour relations. Buberl’s cost-cutting and digitalisation programme has also been controversial in certain markets, most notably in Belgium, where AXA announced plans in 2016 to cut around 650 jobs while investing in new technology and product lines.[14][6] Trade unions criticised the scale and pace of the restructuring and issued a joint newsletter titled “No, Mr Buberl!” to protest against the reductions and perceived lack of consultation.[27] Management argued that the changes were necessary to keep the Belgian unit competitive and sustainable, and similar tensions have surfaced in other countries where AXA has sought efficiency gains under his leadership.[14][6]

🗳️ Executive pay scrutiny. The debate around Buberl’s own compensation came to the fore in 2022 when proxy adviser ISS recommended that shareholders vote against the proposed increase in his pay package, citing limited disclosure of performance criteria and the scale of the uplift.[21] While AXA ultimately secured shareholder approval, the episode highlighted broader European sensitivities around executive remuneration and governance.[21][16] In response, the company provided more granular information on how variable pay is determined and reiterated that the CEO’s pay remained below that of peers at comparable insurers, framing the package as aligned with long-term value creation.[22][26]

🌱 Climate and ESG positioning. On environmental and social issues, Buberl has taken high-profile stances that have drawn both praise and criticism. Building on an initial coal divestment announced in 2015, AXA under his leadership tightened its policies by pledging to phase out coal exposure and to cease insuring new coal-fired power plants and certain oil sands projects, while ramping up so-called green investments.[7] At the 2017 One Planet Summit in Paris he warned that a four-degree rise in global temperatures would be “not insurable”, arguing that climate risk made continued support for some fossil-fuel assets incompatible with the Paris Agreement.[7][28] Environmental groups have often hailed AXA as a climate leader within the insurance sector, even as some NGOs and campaigners continue to press the company to go further and criticise areas where it maintains exposure to high-emissions clients.[29][30]

🌊 Approach to criticism and risk. Across these episodes, profiles and interviews portray Buberl as responding to criticism with extensive communication and an emphasis on data and long-term objectives rather than rhetorical confrontation.[10][6] He has argued that strategic shifts such as the move towards property and casualty and the tightening of coal and oil sands policies require what he describes as strong convictions backed by a committed leadership team, and that such convictions are necessary to navigate what he calls “stormy times” for the insurance industry.[10]

Related content & more

YouTube videos

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Thomas Buberl discusses the evolution of the insurance industry and the role of technology on The David Rubenstein Show.
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AXA CEO Thomas Buberl explains how advances in science and data help insurers assess climate change risk.

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References

  1. ↑ "The Innovative Insurer for the Innovative Insured: The AXA XL Ecosystem Journey". RH Business Ventures.
  2. ↑ "Integrated Report 2023: Unlock the Future" (PDF). AXA.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Thomas Buberl". AXA. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Thomas Buberl". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 "Thomas Buberl". Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 6.25 6.26 "Comment Thomas Buberl transforme Axa". Le Journal du Dimanche. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "Insurance giant Axa dumps investments in tar sands pipelines". The Guardian. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Thomas Buberl". IBM. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Financial Statements 2018 Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA" (PDF). Bertelsmann. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.8 "Trust Your Gut: AXA's Thomas Buberl Talks Transformation and Reinvention". Russell Reynolds Associates. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "From Lancaster MBA to AXA CEO". Lancaster University Management School. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 "Thomas Buberl, l'exception culturelle allemande d'Axa". Le Monde. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Axa chief executive launches big shake-up to simplify company". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 "AXA Weighs 650 Belgium Job Cuts in 'Transformation' to Strengthen Unit". Insurance Journal. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Full Year 2023 Earnings" (PDF). AXA. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 "Increases to CEO Compensation Might Be Put On Hold For Now at AXA SA". Simply Wall St via Webull. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  17. ↑ "Axa extends focus on smaller businesses to increase sales". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  18. ↑ "AXA's Board of Directors proposes the renewal of Thomas Buberl's term as Chief Executive Officer". AXA. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  19. ↑ "Axa board intends to reappoint Buberl as chief executive". Insurance Times. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "Thomas Buberl". Redalpine Venture Partners. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 21.6 "AXA: critical of Thomas Buberl's salary increase". Atlas Magazine. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 "Permanent information on corporate officers' remuneration 2024" (PDF). AXA. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Information on corporate officers' remuneration 2025" (PDF). AXA. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  24. ↑ "Thomas Buberl Salary Information 2024". Economic Research Institute. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 25.4 "Qui est Thomas Buberl, l'homme pressé d'Axa ?". Trends-Tendances. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Thomas Buberl Set For CEO Reappointment At AXA Following Board's Proposal". BoardStewardship. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  27. ↑ "No, Mr Buberl!". UNITE in AXA. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  28. ↑ "AXA under pressure on oil and gas insurance". Insure Our Future. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  29. ↑ "AXA: Your Credibility is on the Line". Ekō. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
  30. ↑ "Burn the Client or Burn the Carbon? Insurer AXA Grapples With Climate Commitments". Insurance Journal. Retrieved 2025-11-20.
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