Insurance industry consultant Daniel Fogarty says Martin Senn, the former global CEO of Zurich Insurance who died on May 27, should be remembered as “a fine man with a passion for people and a commitment to values-based leadership”. 

Mr Fogarty served in a range of senior positions at Zurich Australia from 2009 to September last year, when he stepped down as CEO, and got to know Mr Senn personally as well as professionally. 

A Swiss national, Mr Senn died from a self-inflicted gunshot in his holiday home in the Swiss town of Klosters. He joined Zurich in 2006 as chief investment officer and became global CEO in 2010. 

He resigned from the position last December after the group’s third-quarter net profit fell 79%, forcing it to withdraw from the acquisition of UK insurer RSA and prompting restructures and retrenchments in Australia, the UK, the US and Switzerland.

Mr Fogarty says Mr Senn “was very approachable and would show genuine interest in the people he met. He was very proud of what Zurich staff achieved and would continually be encouraging staff to be the best they could be.

“Martin was active in ensuring that he and all staff lived up to the Zurich values of integrity, teamwork, excellence, sustainable value creation and customer-centricity.”

Mr Fogarty told insuranceNEWS.com.au Mr Senn had high aspirations for the business “and was also a family man”.

“Martin loved coming to Australia. He had a soft spot for the Zurich staff Down Under and for the great relationships that Zurich has in insurance and the wider community. 

“Martin’s son married an Australian and was living in Australia, so he also felt very personally connected to our country and our people.”

“No one could easily understand what was going on in Martin’s mind in the last days of his life,” Mr Fogarty said. “He still had so much to live for, and so much to continue to give the world.

“His untimely death shines a light on suicide and depression.”

People in Australia seeking support can contact Lifelife on 13 11 14 (www.lifeline.org.au).

Publisher’s note: insuranceNEWS.com.au treats reports of death by suicide with considerable care. Our report last week on the death of Martin Senn upset a small number of subscribers, who variously regarded our statement that he had killed himself as insensitive or confronting.

We follow the Press Council’s protocols on reporting death by suicide. In this particular case the manner of Mr Senn’s death was significant, and to ignore the fact would have been unprofessional.

It’s worth noting that media organisations around the world reported Mr Senn’s death in the same way insuranceNEWS.com.au did.