Zurich General Insurance has lost another key manager, with EGM SME Shaun Feely taking a “career break” to travel in southeast Asia and do community and charity work.

His decision to take up to 18 months out of the insurance industry comes just a few weeks after CEO Shane Doyle gave notice of his own intention to leave the company.

Mr Feely will leave Zurich at the end of July, and Mr Doyle says the EGM position will be filled before then.

Last year Mr Feely ran the New York Marathon to raise funds for CAMFED, an organisation that works on education and investment in poor countries.

“I’ve given myself up to 18 months to travel and give something back,” he said. “It’s an adventure I can share with my wife and two children prior to them starting secondary school.”

Mr Doyle says Zurich encourages employees to stay connected to community issues they feel deeply about and he supports Mr Feely’s decision.

“We are proud that we have people so committed that they’ll put their career on hold like this to pursue what matters to them,” Mr Doyle said.

Zurich CEO Asia Pacific General Insurance Johnny Chen says Mr Feely will stay in touch and “we both hope there is an opportunity for him to work back in the Zurich global network in the not too distant future”.

Meanwhile, Zurich has announced that James Myerscough will join the Sydney-based general insurance team as Head of Risk Management.

His appointment arises from the split of the job of Head of Risk and Compliance into two roles.

Mr Myerscough is a former Program Director, Enterprise-wide Risk Management with AMP, has lectured at Oxford University in Engineering Science and worked in market trading at Schroders and Merrill Lynch.