New chief executive will start new job on 7 March

Mario greco

Mario Greco will take over as Zurich’s group chief executive two months earlier than planned.

The former Generali chief executive was due to take the top job at Zurich from interim chief executive Tom de Swaan on 1 May this year.

But the insurer announced this morning along with its “disappointing results” that Greco would assume his new role on 7 March.

This morning Zurich announced a 53% drop in net profit after tax and plans to cut thousands more jobs as it aims for $1bn (£690m) of annual cost savings by 2018.

The Swiss insurance group aims to axe 8,000 jobs by 2018, including the roughly 1,800 cuts or transfers already announced in 2015.