Russell Bundschuh to Succeed Thompson at M Financial

What You Need to Know

Wes Thompson has been the CEO of the distribution support organization since 2017.
Bundschuh is an IBM alumnus with a degree in geophysical engineering.
He has been running the international life business at Chubb.

M Financial — a financial services distribution services group that supports 135 member firms — is replacing its operational leader.

The board of the Portland, Oregon-based company says Russell Bundschuh will succeed Wes Thompson as the group’s president and CEO Feb. 7.

Bundschuh has been a senior vice president at the Chubb Group and president of Chubb’s Chubb Life unit. Chubb Life sells life insurance and life reinsurance in markets outside the United States.

Thompson is a former president of Sun Life Financial U.S. He became M Financial’s CEO in June 2017.

M Financial did not give a reason for Thompson’s departure and did not include a comment from Thompson in the announcement about Bundschuh’s hiring. Thompson could not immediately be reached for comment.

Chubb said Bryce Johns, who has been the CEO of HSBC Life, will succeed Bundschuh at Chubb Life.

The Thinking

David Byers, the M Financial chair, said in a comment about the CEO change, included in the change announcement, that the board picked Bundschuch because of his accomplishments as a strategist and an innovator, his global perspective and his experience with developing product portfolios and digital platforms aimed at high-net-worth people.

Bundschuh’s Record

Bundschuh spent six years as a strategic planner and division head at New York Life before moving to Ace in 2010. He became a Chubb employee after Chubb acquired Ace.

Earlier in his career, Bundschuch sold mainframe computers to financial services companies for IBM. He increased his involvement in the financial services sector in 1994, when he began a 10-year stint as a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

He has bachelor’s degrees in geophysical engineering and electrical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a master’s degree in business from the University of Pennsylvania.

He is a fellow of the Life Management Institute.