PartnerRe's chief executive officer Patrick Thiele — one of Bermuda's most successful reinsurance bosses — is to retire at the end of this year, the company announced yesterday.

His successor in the top job will come from inside the company, Mr. Thiele told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

During his ten-year tenure in the role, Mr. Thiele has overseen the growth of PartnerRe into a top-five global reinsurer. Since he took over in late 2000, PartnerRe has successfully transitioned from a catastrophe-only reinsurer to a diversified, global reinsurance company, with offices in 17 locations worldwide.

In an interview, Mr. Thiele said it was the right time for him to go — from both his and the company's standpoint.

"From an individual perspective, the CEO position of a publicly traded company is a reasonably high-risk and high responsibility position," Mr. Thiele said. "It wears on you and changes you. The person can get lost a bit and the CEO takes over. If you stay on too long, then maybe those changes become irreversible.

"It's the right time for the company as well. I think an organisation slowly loses its ability to adapt, as the CEO becomes wedded to a particular style and strategy. This can lead to a potentially reduced ability of the organisation to change as the world changes.

"So an eight- to ten-year time frame is probably about right for a CEO — two cycles in the reinsurance industry. There are always exceptions. There are some geniuses of management in the business who have done it. But I'm not a genius."

Mr. Thiele's success is visible in the numbers. From the end of his first year as CEO, 2001, to the end of last year, PartnerRe's shareholders' equity soared from $1.7 billion to $7.6 billion and its revenues from 1.9 billion to $5.4 billion. Between 2002 and 2009, the company's compound annual growth rate of book value per share was 14.3 percent, while the average return on equity was 15.8 percent.

This success was achieved during some testing times, from the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001 to the huge claims from the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, and the financial crisis of 2008, exacerbated by more large-scale claims from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

"We have obviously gone through some pretty big events, but we executed our strategy well and I'm very proud of that," Mr. Thiele said. He added that he had enjoyed the privilege of "working with some of the most talented individuals in the reinsurance industry" over the past decade. In the meantime, Mr. Thiele will be working closely with his successor to ensure a smooth leadership transition.

Mr. Thiele said that the first thing he will do after retiring, effective December 31, will be to "decompress" and then to lead "a 'lower-risk' life with my family".

Last December, Mr. Thiele was elected chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR), for a two-year term through 2011. He confirmed that he would not be staying on in that role after he steps down as PartnerRe CEO. Arch Capital CEO Constantine (Dinos) Iordanou is deputy chairman of ABIR, while XL Capital CEO Mike McGavick is second deputy chairman.