Universal Sompo ropes in Sharad Mathur of SBI General Insurance as CEO

Mumbai, Jun 4 () Universal Sompo General Insurance has roped in Sharad Mathur of rival SBI General as its managing director and chief executive.

Mathur, who has held various positions at SBI General Insurance and was last the head of distribution, will lead Universal Sompo's overall operations and report to the board.

He brings over 23 years of experience in building scale and profitable general insurance businesses.

Universal Sompo is a joint venture between Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank, Dabur Investments Corporation and Sompo Insurance of Japan. It employs over 1,000 people across 86 branches and 17 zonal offices.

"Under Mathur's leadership, we aim to develop a capability to deliver more innovative products, re-engineered distribution architecture and significant improvements in productivity," said Indian Bank MD Padmaja Chunduru.

Daniel Neo, regional chief executive of Sompo Holdings Asia said: "India is a rapidly-growing market for our business in Asia. Mathur's understanding of the market and general insurance business, combined with his expertise in sustainable business expansion and digital technologies, will be a huge asset for Universal Sompo."

Prior to joining SBI General in 2009, he was with ICICI Lombard General Insurance since its inception in 2001 and had held various regional and national leadership roles. Before that he worked with MRF, Bharat Shell and Reliance Retail.

The city-based Universal Sompo is the first public-private partnership joint venture in the domestic general insurance industry. Its gross underwritten premium stood at Rs 2,833.53 crore in 2018-19 with a profit of Rs 206.71 crore. BEN ANU ANU