Carolina Otero, Allianz Chief Risk Officer, elected Chair of the CRO Forum.
Carolina was appointed Allianz´s Group Chief Risk Officer in January 2023.
She has worked in several roles and subsidiaries within the AZ Group since 2009 when she joined the Company, including Group Risk team leader (2009-2012), head of the business division for US insurance business (2013-2015) and Actuarial team leader for Life business (2016) in Allianz SE. She took the position of CFO in AZ Argentina in 2017 and then CEO in November 2019 until end of 2022.
Prior to joining Allianz, she worked 12 years at ING in different actuarial roles in Argentina, The Netherlands and Chile. Carolina holds an actuarial degree from the University of Buenos Aires.
Commenting on her new role as Chair, Carolina said: “During phases of extraordinary challenges, a sound risk management is instrumental in navigating uncertainty and ensuring the long term stability of our industry. At this critical juncture, I am honoured to assume the role of Chair of the CRO Forum, with a determined commitment to developing best practices and tackling emerging issues within the insurance sector. I am excited to collaborate with my peers to foster and advance the development and resilience of the insurance industry. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to Carlo Ferraresi for his outstanding leadership as Chair and the strong contributions he has made to the CRO Forum.”
Patrick Raaflaub, Chief Risk Officer of Swiss Re, remains as Vice-chair.
Patrick has been Group CRO at Swiss Re since 2014. He began his career as an economist at Credit Suisse. He then was a founding member of a consulting start-up and research fellow at the University of St.Gallen. He joined Swiss Re in 1994 and was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Swiss Re Italia SpA in 1997, and then was Divisional Controller Americas Division from 2000. He worked as Head of Finance Zurich from 2003, then Regional Chief Financial Officer Europe and Asia from 2005. From 2006, he was Head of Group Capital Management, where he was responsible for capital management at Group level and global regulatory affairs.
In 2008 he joined the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA as Chief Executive Officer. Patrick Raaflaub returned to Swiss Re as Group Chief Risk Officer and member of the Group Executive Committee in September 2014. Patrick holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of St. Gallen. He currently serves as Vice-chair of the Managing Board of the Swiss Insurance Association.
Françoise Gilles, Chief Risk Officer of AXA, elected Vice-chair of the CRO Forum.
Françoise Gilles is AXA Group Chief Risk Officer and a member of the Management Committee. With over 25 years of experience in insurance and banking across Europe and Asia, she has built a strong expertise in investments, asset-liability management, and risk management.
Françoise joined AXA in 2013, as Head of ALM and Capital Management for AXA Bank Europe, before being appointed as Board Member and Chief Risk Officer for AXA Bank Belgium. From 2019, she held positions in the AXA Asia Region, first as Chief Risk Officer, then as Chief Strategic Development Officer, steering AXA’s strategy across the region while based in Hong Kong. Francoise has also served as non-executive board member to several entities in Europe and Asia. Françoise graduated as a Civil Engineer from the Université Catholique de Louvain and is a qualified actuary.
The CRO Forum would like to thank Carlo Ferraresi, Chief Risk Officer of Generali, for chairing the CRO Forum in 2024. Under his leadership, the CRO Forum celebrated their 20th anniversary and published the following papers: ‘Unmasking Inflation’, ‘Emerging Risk Initiative – Major Trends and Emerging Risk Radar 2024’ and ‘Navigating uncertainty – A partitioner’s toolkit to managing emerging risks’.