DVS seeks new president as Sigulla crosses the divide

Mr Sigulla told DVS members of his decision this morning during the insurance buyer’s annual symposium in Munich, after the news was broken by Financial Times Deutschland and distributed to members over breakfast.

Mr Sigulla, who took over as president of the DVS from Ralf Oelssner, former insurance manager at Lufthansa, is 53 years old and has worked at Siemens for 14 years.

He has worked hard to raise the profile of the insurance buyer’s lobby in Germany and as a high profile spokesman for the industry will be missed by the DVS membership.

hide

But, as one leading DVS member told Commercial Risk Europe, it is good news that one of Germany’s leading industrial insurance groups has decided to appoint a leading customer onto its board where he will be able to represent buyer interests, and hopefully help develop a more customer-friendly approach.

Mr Sigulla will step down as President of the DVS and as a board member of the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) as a result of his decision to move to HDI.

The DVS has not announced who will take over from Mr Sigulla but early talk during the conference was that Jurand Honisch, Senior Vice President Corporate Risk Management & Insurance at Bertelsmann, and a DVS board member, would be a good choice.

Other candidates for the President would be fellow board members Dr. Peter Klatt of BMW, Günter Dröse of Deutsche Bank, Harry Daugird of ABB AG, Klaus Braukmann of Continental AG, Heike Hehr of K + S Aktiengesellschaft, Friedrich Schüßler of BASF and Klaus Greimel E.ON AG.

Mr Dröse was mooted as a candidate to replace Mr Oelssner when he retired. But since then he has created the European Captive Insurance and Reinsurance Owners Association, along with a number of the leading European captive owners, and it is unlikely he would be able to perform both roles.