Zurich Insurance former CEO Martin Senn commits suicide

Becomes the second top executive at the group to take his own life in less than three years.

The former Zurich Insurance chief executive Martin Senn died after committing suicide, the company said on May 30, 2016. Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters

Former Zurich Insurance chief executive Martin Senn has committed suicide, the company said on Monday, becoming the second top executive at the group to take his own life in less than three years.

“Martin Senn’s family has informed us that Martin committed suicide last Friday,” Switzerland’s biggest insurer said, adding in a statement it was “stunned and deeply shaken” by his sudden death.

“With Martin, we lose not only a commendable former CEO and valued former colleague, but also a good-hearted friend. Our thoughts are with his family, to whom we express our deepest condolences.

“Out of respect for Martin and out of consideration for the family, we will not make any further comment.”

Swiss newspaper Blick said Senn, who was born in 1957, had shot himself at the family’s Alpine resort home in Klosters. Police in the canton of Grisons confirmed they had responded to such a case but gave no more details.

Senn quit on December 1 following a failed takeover bid for Britain’s RSA.

Senn is the second top Zurich executive and third leader of a Swiss company to take his own life in three years.

In August 2013, 53-year-old Zurich finance chief Pierre Wauthier killed himself after writing a suicide note addressed “To whom it may concern” in which he described becoming demoralised by what he called a new, more aggressive tone at Zurich under then-chairman Josef Ackermann.

Ackermann, a former head of Deutsche Bank, denied any wrongdoing but quit after Wauthier’s death.

In July 2013, Swisscom chief executive Carsten Schloter took his own life.

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