Paris-based global reinsurer SCOR has promoted Philipp Rüede to group chief financial officer (CFO), succeeding François de Varenne, while also announcing new roles for Pilar Santamaria Cases and Laure Forgeron.
The changes are part of SCOR’s 2026 forward plan, the final year of which the reinsurer plans to unveil its next strategic cycle in December 2026. Against this backdrop, SCOR has made a number of changes to its Executive Committee as part of its ongoing transformation over the past few years.
Rüede has been CEO of SCOR Life & Health since June 1, 2025 and has successfully led the ongoing transformation of the L&H business. In his new role as Group CFO, he succeeds François de Varenne, who will resign as Group CFO and Deputy CEO on March 7, 2026, and become Senior Advisor to the CEO on the same day. He will continue to be responsible for closing the fourth quarter 2025 accounts and the 2025 annual accounts.
Rüede has more than twenty years of experience in banking and reinsurance. He started his career in 1999 in the equity derivatives structuring and trading department of Vontobel Bank in Zurich. For ten years, he served as global co-head of equity derivatives structuring at CS First Boston. Thereafter, he became a partner at Arbillon Capital AG, a Swiss electronic trading company.
He entered the reinsurance industry in 2013 and joined Swiss Re in Zurich as head of reinsurance capital management, responsible for overseeing the optimization of capital efficiency within the group. From 2015 to 2019, he served as Global Head of P&C Structured Solutions, leading a dedicated team. In 2019, he was named head of the newly formed Alternative Capital Partners team, working with the P&C and Casualty re/insurance business units to proactively manage risk limits and enhance the firm’s flexible capital structure.
Pilar Santamaria Cases, currently the company’s Head of L&H Continental Europe and Latin America, has been appointed CEO of SCOR L&H and a member of the Group Executive Committee. She will also transition to her new role on March 7, 2026. She began her career as a pricing actuary at Gerling in 2000 and subsequently joined Revios Spain as a marketing actuary, which was acquired by SCOR in 2006.
In 2012, she was appointed Head of Iberia, overseeing life and health reinsurance solutions for the Spanish and Portuguese markets. From 2017, she expanded her international responsibilities, first leading Central and Southern European markets and the Middle East, followed by Western Europe and Latin America in 2019. From 2024 she is Head of L&H Continental Europe and Latin America.
Forgeron joined SCOR on January 5, 2026 as Global Chief Underwriting Officer P&C, reporting to SCOR P&C CEO Jean-Paul Conoscente, and joined the Group Executive Committee. She started her career at Swiss Re in 2009, holding underwriting and client management roles in Paris and Zurich.
She has held several leadership roles, including head of global and Western European casualty treaty underwriting and dedicated head of property and casualty for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2023, she was appointed head of Swiss Re CUO Casualty in New York.
Thierry Léger, CEO of SCOR, commented on the appointments: “Following his successful integration into the company, I am delighted to continue to rely on Philipp in his new role as Group Chief Financial Officer. Philipp has a deep understanding of the financial mechanisms that underpin our business, in particular the areas of treasury, asset liability management and capital management, which are our priorities in the coming years. His contribution will be key to the success of our next strategic plan, which will be launched to the market in 2019.” December 2026. This new plan will build on the progress made in Vision 2026, leveraging the strong platform we have built in recent years.
“I am also very pleased to welcome Pilar and Laure to our Executive Committee. With over 25 years’ experience in life reinsurance, including 20 years at SCOR, Pilar has the skills and leadership required to transform L&H’s business and ensure it is sustainably profitable. This promotion reflects the depth of the Group’s talent pool and demonstrates SCOR’s commitment to fostering professional growth and long-term career development.”
He continued: “I am equally pleased to welcome Laure to our group. She has over 15 years of proven international experience in P&C reinsurance and is tasked with defining and driving P&C underwriting and portfolio strategies across reinsurance, insurance, alternative solutions and temporary businesses. She will work with her team to ensure excellence in risk assessment and underwriting, while providing strategic insights to market teams to improve performance.
“Fabrice Brégier and the entire Board of Directors join me in expressing our gratitude to François, who has played a key role in the development of SCOR over the past two decades. As founder and first CEO of the Group’s Portfolio Management Company (now SCOR Investment Partners), François has made a significant contribution to the transformation and modernization of the Group, especially during the last three years at the helm of the Finance Department. I wish him every success in the next stage of his career. I wish Philipp, Pilar and Laure the best “I have achieved great success in my new role and look forward to working with the strengthened Executive Committee to continue to transform the Group and realize its full potential.”
Effective March 7, 2026, the SCOR Executive Committee will include: SCOR CEO Thierry Léger, SCOR P&C CEO Jean-Paul Conoscente, Group COO Claudia Dill, P&C Global CUO Laure Forgeron, Group Chief Corporate Officer and Group Secretary-General Claire Le Gall-Robinson, SCOR Business Solutions CEO Claire McDonald, SCOR L&H Deputy CEO Redmond Murphy, Group CFO Philipp Rüede, SCOR L&H CEO Pilar Santamaria Cass and Group Chief Risk Officer Fabian Uffer.
