Former Fortitude Re CEO James Bracken has been named chief financial officer at Zurich North America, effective July 1.

Mr Bracken will succeed Peter Hirs, who returns to Zurich Insurance Group in Switzerland as group head of Mergers & Acquisitions.

In his new role, Mr Bracken will oversee actuarial, financial accounting and reporting, corporate tax, treasury, planning and performance management, and finance operations.

Mr Bracken, who has more than 25 years of financial services experience, held the top job at Fortitude Re until October 2022.

A Zurich spokesman said: “During four years as Fortitude Re's CEO, Bracken built a Bermuda-based run-off reinsurance company with $75 billion in total assets. He led M&A transactions and a full carve-out from AIG, which culminated in the sale of Fortitude Re to an investor consortium.”

Prior to his time at Fortitude Re, Mr Bracken served as CFO of AIG General Insurance.