A Well Managed Company

While a strong balance sheet is the backbone of any reinsurer’s success, its human capital must provide the value that clients and shareholders seek. We count on our people’s skills and judgment to assume and manage the risks that produce profitable returns. In return, we must be a well managed company with a positive work environment, where employees can grow, develop their careers and be rewarded for their performance.

It is our intention to be a world-class organization with a stable and committed workforce, a fully institutionalized business unit culture, and an internal pool of talent from which the majority of our key leadership positions are filled. We believe we have fulfilled that vision. For the past five years, we have created organizational stability with our business unit structure that has not changed since it was established.

In the same period, we have focused on developing and retaining our people. For our leadership team, we use platforms such as our Senior Leadership Conference to support this commitment. We understand that being open and transparent with the people who make strategic and tactical decisions not only develops a culture of trust, but drives accountability down through the organization. People who feel valued stay with the Company, and long-term employees, familiar with PartnerRe and its clients, provide continuity, stability and consistency. We keep our people even if we reduce the top line. This is key to effectively managing the cycles in our industry – it drives the right behavior, as it ensures internal integrity and transparency are not compromised by worries over meeting short-term goals.

An appropriate governance structure is essential to being a well managed company. It ensures there is clarity of roles and responsibility, and accountability for results. We have policies and processes in place for everything from risk management, reserves and underwriting to communications, HR and IT. Our business unit organization and our governance structure are aligned. Each business unit has a distinct strategy that supports the Company’s overall strategy. Capital allocations and budgets are unit-specific and driven by market conditions, terms and pricing. As a result, when markets change, the affected business units can respond quickly, reallocating capital and talent where needed to follow the best opportunities.

We believe in investing in our human capital, recognizing that the potentially higher expense ratio is offset by lower losses and enhanced profitability. Because at the end of the day, in addition to a skilled, motivated and seasoned workforce, we and our shareholders have been compensated for that expense with better book value growth.