Germany’s Talanx Group, the parent of reinsurer Hannover Re and HDI Global, has announced Jens Warkentin will join Talanx AG’s Board of Management, becoming head of the Retail Germany Division and CEO of HDI Deutschland AG, as Dr Christopher Lohmann steps down to pursue a career change.
Talanx states that the move is taking place at Dr Lohmann’s own request, on the best of terms and by mutual agreement, in line with his life plans.
Dr Lohmann, who is also Talanx’s CIO and CEO of HDI Deutschland AG, will ensure an orderly handover to his successor in the coming weeks, with the full transfer in effect January 1st, 2023.
He will continue his association with the Talanx Group as a Supervisory Board member of Neodigital AG.
Dr Lohmann commented, “After nearly 24 years in operational management, as a board of management member and CEO at major insurers in the German-speaking regions of Europe, I would like to pursue a career change.
“I am grateful for the wealth of experience I have been lucky enough to acquire in the management positions I have held. I am now looking forward to contributing and passing on my knowledge of areas such as corporate transformation and digitalisation in a different role.
“I would like to thank the Talanx Group for its trust in me and for the entrepreneurial freedom that I had. It was a real pleasure to manage a motivated team and to work with Jens Warkentin on developing it further. The last three years were extremely satisfying.”
Herbert K. Haas, Talanx AG’s Supervisory Board Chairman, thanked Dr Lohmann on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board for his work, stating, “Dr Lohmann has enhanced the Retail Germany Division as a unit and given it a new strategic direction.
“This applies to both property insurance and life insurance. We would like to thank him for this and wish him all the best for the future, both professionally and personally. And I would like to wish Jens Warkentin every success in his new role. He has extensive experience in all areas of the insurance business and will use this to achieve the division’s ambitious goals.”
Jens Warkentin will also become the Talanx Board of Management’s Chief Information Officer, with responsibility for IT at its primary insurance operations within Germany.
The company affirmed that he has an extensive track record in all areas of the insurance business, having been CFO for the Talanx Group’s Retail Germany Division since October 2018, and performing certain CEO duties on an interim basis.
In addition, he was the Board of Management member responsible for Human Resources for all German primary insurance employees from May 2019 to June 2022. Talanx adds that during this period, he streamlined operating structures for the primary insurance group in Germany and reorganised the Human Resources function to provide customer-centric services.
Before this, he was Chief Operating Officer at AXA Germany, where he was responsible for customer, partner and process services. He was also initially responsible for group development, sales process and quality management, and sales management for banking operations.
Dr Thorsten Pauls, who will succeed Jens Warkentin as CFO of HDI Deutschland AG, is an experienced risk manager and has been CFO of the Talanx Group’s bancassurance companies – TARGO Lebensversicherung AG, TARGO Versicherung AG, neue leben Lebensversicherung AG, neue leben Unfallversicherung AG, PB Lebensversicherung AG and PB Versicherung AG – since 2018. He has also been head of HDI Germany’s risk management operations since 2014.
