NY-METLIFE
15.10.2020 11:02:06 CEST | Business Wire | Press release
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) today announced a number of changes to its senior leadership team. All changes are effective on January 1, 2021, unless otherwise noted.
Executive Vice President and President of the Latin America region Oscar Schmidt will retire after a distinguished 26-year career with the company. He will step away from his executive position on December 31, 2020, and will stay on through the end of March 2021 to assist with the leadership transition.
“Over the past two and a half decades, Oscar has helped us grow and develop our Latin America business, building a well-diversified portfolio of businesses across the region,” said MetLife President and CEO Michel Khalaf. “Under his strong leadership, we have grown to become the largest life insurer in Latin America – a distinction achieved organically and through a number of acquisitions.”
Succeeding Schmidt as Regional President, Latin America, will be Eric Clurfain , Executive Vice President and Chairman, President and CEO of MetLife Japan K.K., subject to the necessary approvals. He will report to Khalaf.
“With more than two decades of insurance experience, Eric has a proven track record of building high-performing teams and businesses and a deep commitment to our associates and customers,” Khalaf said. “Over the past two years, his intense focus on business execution and customer centricity has driven culture change in Japan and delivered strong results in support of our Next Horizon strategy. Under his leadership, I am confident LatAm will continue to be a growth engine for MetLife.”
Clurfain’s career path has spanned numerous geographies and strategic leadership responsibilities. Prior to his current role, Clurfain was Regional Head for EMEA with oversight over the region’s 25 markets. Previously, he was Regional Head for Central and Eastern Europe after serving as General Manager of MetLife in Turkey. Earlier in his career with AIG/Alico, Clurfain lived and worked in Latin America.
Succeeding Clurfain as Executive Vice President and Chairman, President and CEO of MetLife Japan K.K. will be Dirk Ostijn , Head of EMEA, subject to the necessary approvals. Ostijn will report to Executive Vice President Kishore Ponnavolu , Regional President, Asia.
“Dirk has successfully led our EMEA region through a challenging operating environment,” Khalaf said. “Under his leadership, the EMEA team built strong momentum with a robust pipeline of new business opportunities, a relentless focus on efficiency, and a diversified model spanning more than 25 markets. I know his exemplary leadership, deep insurance expertise, and passion for the customer will be welcomed and appreciated by our team in Japan.”
With more than 30 years of experience, Ostijn’s career encompasses all aspects of the life insurance industry, including product, finance, operations, customer service and technology. He also spent more than a decade managing insurance brokerage operations, served as a General Manager in Belgium and held regional roles such as chief financial officer and head of strategic initiatives.
Succeeding Ostijn as Head of EMEA will be Nuria Garcia , Senior Vice President and Deputy Head of EMEA. She will report to Khalaf.
“Nuria has a strong focus on business development and partnerships as well as a passion for the customer,” Khalaf said. “She is a highly effective leader who can connect internal and external stakeholders to collaborate across business, function and market. Her leadership played an integral role in the region’s continued strong performance, and I have every confidence that she will continue to build on this track record going forward.”
Garcia has more than 20 years of experience in EMEA spanning distribution, marketing, operations and finance, both with MetLife and GE.
“Taken together, these moves demonstrate not only our commitment to talent development and succession planning, but our deep bench of leaders who are ready to step up immediately and deliver value to our customers and shareholders,” Khalaf said.
About MetLife
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 markets globally and holds leading positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com .
Forward-Looking Statements
The forward-looking statements in this disclosure, using words such as “will,” are based on assumptions and expectations that involve risks and uncertainties, including the “Risk Factors” MetLife, Inc. describes in its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. MetLife’s future results could differ, and it has no obligation to correct or update any of these statements.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201015005425/en/
Link:
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Philip Morris International’s Moira Gilchrist Positions Human Judgment as a Critical Leadership Advantage Amid Rapid AI Adoption at Wall Street Journal Forum8.5.2026 10:00:00 CEST | Press release
PMI’s Chief Global Communications Officer says companies that safeguard human judgment will gain a competitive edge as AI automates routine knowledge work Philip Morris International’s (PMI) (NYSE:PM) Chief Global Communications Officer, Moira Gilchrist, joined global thought leaders at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference in New York to examine why human cognition—judgment, context, creativity, and ethical reasoning—is becoming the most valuable asset in an age of artificial intelligence. “The AI boom is putting a premium on distinctly human capabilities,” said Gilchrist, who took part in the session “Cognition: The New Currency – Why Human Judgment Matters More Than Ever.” Speaking to attendees, she emphasized that, “As knowledge is getting democratized, human judgment, intuition, and creativity become the true differentiators that leaders need to nurture across all levels of their organizations.” Philip Morris International is today a different company, built wi
Fortegra Appoints Iwan Röpcke as Chief Executive Officer, Belgium8.5.2026 09:30:00 CEST | Press release
The Fortegra Group, Inc., a global specialty insurer, today announced the appointment of Iwan Röpcke as Chief Executive Officer, Belgium. Mr. Röpcke brings more than 25 years of insurance industry experience to the role, spanning broking, commercial leadership, and executive management across the Benelux and broader European markets. He joins Fortegra from Lloyd’s Insurance Company S.A., where he served as Country Manager for Belgium and the Netherlands, building out the operation from its early stages and overseeing both business strategy and development. Prior to Lloyd's, Mr. Röpcke held senior leadership positions at Willis Towers Watson (via Gras Savoye), where he served as Head of Sales and Head of the Competence Center. His career also includes roles at Inter Partner Assistance (AXA Assistance) as Commercial Director Benelux, Winterthur Europe Assurances, AIG Europe, Aon Belgium, and Marsh. Mr. Röpcke’s industry expertise spans a range of specialty risk areas, with deep relations
KAYTUS Launches All-QLC Flash Storage at AI EXPO 2026 for 10,000-GPU Clusters8.5.2026 09:02:00 CEST | Press release
KAYTUS’s next-generation all-QLC flash solution delivers fully linear performance scaling for massive GPU clusters, while reducing TCO by 70%, enabling ultra-large-scale computing for the era of agentic AI. At AI EXPO KOREA 2026, KAYTUS officially launched its All-QLC Flash Storage Solution, engineered to deliver high performance, massive scalability, and cost efficiency for 10,000-GPU clusters. The solution addresses data-delivery bottlenecks in ultra-large-scale AI training, helping maximize GPU resource utilization. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260508313130/en/ Based on the KR2280 and KR1180 server platforms, the solution is deeply integrated with industry-leading AI-native parallel file systems to eliminate data silos inherent in traditional tiered storage. Purpose-built for read-intensive AI workloads, it overcomes the horizontal scaling limitations of massive clusters. Verified test-data shows that, a
Beneq Appoints Dr. Jason Harrison as Chief Executive Officer8.5.2026 09:00:00 CEST | Press release
Semiconductor industry leader takes the helm to accelerate Beneq’s next phase of growth in atomic layer deposition Beneq Oy, the home of atomic layer deposition (ALD), today announced the appointment of Dr. Jason Harrison as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Harrison succeeds Dr. Tommi Vainio and will lead Beneq into its next phase of growth across semiconductor, optical, and emerging technology markets. A Strategic Leadership Transition Beneq enters its next phase of growth from a position of strong commercial momentum. Recent milestones include the qualification of the Beneq Transform® cluster tool for volume production of GaN power and RF filter devices; the introduction of Beneq Transmute™ and Beneq Transform® XP, both engineered for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) of specialty semiconductors; growing adoption of the P-Series for coating critical chamber parts in advanced node devices; and selection of the C2R™ for AR waveguide production in next-generation XR optics. Against this backd
World Employment Confederation’s 59th Annual Conference to Address Critical Global Labour Market Concerns8.5.2026 07:12:00 CEST | Press release
Senior leaders from policy, business and international institutions are set to discuss critical labour market concerns at the World Employment Confederation’s Annual Conference, during an era of global transformation and disruption never-before-seen. Taking place on 12-13 May in Toronto and entitled ‘Grow With Talent’, this year’s World Employment Conference – co-organised with ACSESS – arrives at a time of profound economic uncertainty. This gathering of leaders and experts will help define the path forward for the global labour market and set the stage for discussions at the 114th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) in June. Bettina Schaller, President of World Employment Confederation (WEC) says: “The question at the heart of this year’s World Employment Conference is: how will we mobilise the world’s talent to drive growth in an era of disruption?At a time of accelerating AI adoption, rapid demographic change and an uncertain global economic outlook, pressure on la
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom