Structured leadership transitions have become a feature of the reinsurance market in 2026. AIG announced in February that Peter Zaffino would transition to executive chair with Eric Andersen stepping in as CEO-elect, with a handover timed for after June 1. MS Reinsurance announced in March that group CUO Charles Goldie would retire effective April 1, with Jörg Bruniecki succeeding him and Goldie remaining as senior adviser to CEO Robert Wiest. Now, SCOR's announcement that Marie Biggas will become interim deputy CEO of SCOR Business Solutions before assuming the full CEO role on January 1, 2027 follows the same pattern: a defined timeline, an internal successor and a departing executive remaining available to the organisation.
Biggas currently serves as global chief underwriting officer for SCOR Business Solutions and Cedant Fac, a role she has held since April 2024. The unit covers specialty insurance and facultative reinsurance across engineering, marine, construction, aviation, space, terrorism, war and energy lines - complex, long-cycle risks that reward underwriting continuity. Once she steps into the CEO role permanently, Claire McDonald - who has led SCOR Business Solutions since 2024 - will move into a non-executive position with SCOR UK and SCOR Managing Agency Limited.
Biggas joined SCOR in 2022 as chief underwriting officer of SCOR UK and active underwriter of SCOR Syndicate, the group's Lloyd's platform. Before that she spent more than eight years at Arch Insurance Group, rising to vice president and deputy active underwriter with a focus on terrorism, aviation, war and space risk - the precise lines that define SCOR Business Solutions' specialist positioning.
"Stepping into this role, I am very conscious of the responsibility it brings, but also of the opportunity ahead of us," Biggas said. "What gives me confidence is the strength of this organisation and, above all, the people within it."
McDonald framed the timing explicitly around the completion of SCOR's Forward 2026 strategic plan. "As we complete Forward 2026 and go into a new strategic cycle, the timing seems right to make this change," she said. "I look forward to continuing to contribute to SCOR's success and supporting the transition of leadership for SCOR Business Solutions."
That framing matters. Forward 2026 set a P&C net combined ratio target below 87% through 2026, €150 million in cost savings by year-end, and a P&C insurance revenue compound annual growth rate of 4-6% between 2023 and 2026. At the January 2025 P&C renewals, SCOR achieved 9.6% estimated gross premium income growth, with specialty lines and alternative solutions as the primary drivers, including 29.6% EGPI growth in alternative solutions. Biggas will take full charge of Business Solutions as the Forward 2026 targets face final review heading into 2027 - and will lead the unit into whatever strategic framework succeeds it.
Forward 2026 also set a target for women to hold 30% of SCOR's top management positions by 2025. The group has not publicly confirmed whether that target was met, but the Biggas appointment continues a pattern of senior female leadership in the unit McDonald herself exemplified.
Jean-Paul Conoscente, CEO of SCOR's property and casualty division, credited McDonald's leadership over the past two years and welcomed Biggas to her new role.
