Dan Riordan appointed Zurich global corporate CEO in North America

Dan Riordan has been appointed CEO of Zurich’s global corporate in North America (GCINA) business, effective Oct. 1, the insurer recently announced. He succeeds Mike Kerner, who was recently appointed CEO of general insurance.

In his new role, Riordan will be responsible for the direction, management and performance of the GCINA business, one of the company’s major business areas within North America. He will also play a role in the wider general insurance business goals, Zurich said.

Riordan will continue to be based in New York and will now be a member of Zurich’s global corporate executive team, reporting to Thomas Huerlimann, CEO of global corporate.

“Dan brings a great depth of experience to his new role,” Mike Foley, Zurich’s regional chairman for North America and CEO of North America commercial business said in a statement. “Global corporate is a very important component of Zurich’s business in North America and we know that he will successfully lead its continued growth in the marketplace.”

Riordan joined Zurich in 1997, when he established and led the political risk and trade credit business in Washington, D.C.

In 2008, when the company’s surety unit was integrated within that business, Riordan was named head of the unit developing Zurich’s portfolio of surety, trade credit insurance and political risk insurance products in North America and internationally. Most recently, he has held the role of president of North America commercial’s specialty products business unit.

Riordan is a member of the management committee of the Berne Union and a board member of the U.S.-Russia Business Council. He is also a member of the Institute of International Finance, the Institute for International Economics and is on the board of the Surety and Fidelity Association of America.

He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego and earned a master’s degree in international development from the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C.