The former head of a major insurer has lost his battle with cancer at the age of 68.
James Schiro, who headed
Zurich Insurance between 2002 and 2009, was most recently a lead director at Goldman Sachs Group – a position he left in July to undergo treatment for multiple myeloma – a type of blood cancer.
Goldman expressed its sympathy for Schiro’s friends and family.
“We are greatly saddened by the passing on August 13 of our former lead director, James Schiro,” the bank stated via Twitter. “Our thoughts are with his wife and children.”
Schiro, was the first non-Swiss citizen to lead Zurich, was popularly credited with returning the insurer to profitability after a difficult financial stretch. In 2007, he was named insurance leader of the year by the School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science at St. John’s University in New York.
Previously, Schiro led the merger of Pricewaterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand to form PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in 1998, where he served as chief executive.
