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October 16, 2003 at 08:00 PM
Insurance Search Specialist Sees Shift In Demand
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Insurance companies are looking for different types of board members and top executives these days, says Mike Magsig, a managing director in the New York office of Korn/Ferry International Inc.
Overall demand for executive search services has remained surprisingly stable, he says.
But Magsig, who specializes in insurance and reinsurance searches and once was chairman of Cologne Life Reinsurance Company, Stamford, Conn., does see shifts in the nature of the searches clients request. This year, for example, he has noticed an increase in demand for CEOs.
Magsig also is seeing big changes in the search process and in candidate requirements.
In the 1990s, an insurance company that lost a president and had an executive who appeared to be a qualified successor might simply name the executive president, or ask an executive search firm to conduct a limited search.
Today, “boards are generally wanting a broader search,” Magsig says. “Boards are also taking a more active role in searches to show theyre performing due diligence.”
At many companies, executives who have experience with several different distribution channels are getting more attention than those who have spent their entire careers in a single channel, he says.
Because of increased scrutiny of accounting procedures and other corporate governance issues, insurers hiring Korn/Ferry to look for board members are more interested in candidates with strong accounting backgrounds.
