Winterthur Insurance - Asset Management, Zurich

Leading Swiss insurance company, one of the ten largest insurance companies in Europe; part of Credit Suisse. Was acquired by AXA in 2007

Industry:                            Insurance, Asset Management
Turn Over:                         15 Mia. CHF
Employees:          19‘000
Geographic Spread:    Global

Head ‘Projects & Architecture’

Director

September 2001 - December 2006

Set-up and management of the 'Projects & Architecture' sector with up to 15 international business project managers

  • Implementation of project portfolio management methods and tools, improvement of project management, controlling and reporting

  • Responsible for project portfolio management in Asset Management with the following completed projects:

    • Global roll-out of the centralized securities accounting system (PAM) for US GAAP to the foreign branches of the insurance group.

    • Implementation of PAM for fund accounting with daily valuation of funds

    • Development and implementation of a financial information database for master and market data

    • Development and implementation of an MIS for asset management

    • Evaluation and introduction of an application for performance measurement and attribution

    • Development and implementation of a new application to support hedge accounting under US-GAAP

    • Execution of a preliminary study regarding straight-through processing

    • Process optimization of ticket processing

    • Development and implementation of the interface from the securities sub-ledger to the new general ledger (SAP-FI/CO)

    • Implementation of a new solution for the mortgage center (Wincredit/SAP-CML)

    • Implementation of Bloomberg POMS for portfolio management of funds and third party mandates

    • Development and implementation of a new FX position monitoring system for the "Treasury" department

    • Execution of a preliminary study for the implementation of a SAP-CFM based application landscape followed by a successful project proposal to the CEO of Winterthur Group for implementation

    • Implementation of further requirements of the insurance group, such as US-GAAP primary conversion, separation of collective/individual, changes in valuation groups

  • Coordination of activities in the "Investment Operations" department and adaptation or provision of systems for the introduction of a single-investor fund for Life Insurance Switzerland

  • Deputy of the head of department

  • SOX definition of the change/release management process for Asset Management

Special events / successes

  • Timely assurance of the insurance group's U.S. GAAP investment accounting capability as a prerequisite for the NYSE listing of the parent company

  • Global implementation of PAM allowed a daily, group-wide view of investment gains/losses and their impact on equity, allowing timely risk and financial management in the 2001-2003 bear market. This capability was, to my knowledge, unique in the European insurance market.

  • Implemented project portfolio management methods and tools, improved project management, controlling and reporting