Starr adds former Zurich exec as CFO

C. V. Starr & Co. Inc. Monday named former Zurich Insurance executive Peter Hirs as chief financial officer.

He succeeds Howard I. Smith, who is retiring, the insurer said in a statement.

Mr. Hirs was most recently group head of mergers & acquisitions at Zurich Insurance, where he had earlier served as CFO. He will oversee Starr’s global finance operations from the company’s head office in New York.

Mr. Smith had led Starr’s financial operations since 2005, when Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, Starr’s then-chairman, re-established Starr as a free-standing investment and insurance organization, according to the statement.

Mr. Smith had previously served as CFO for American International Group Inc. and first worked with Mr. Greenberg in 1984, the statement said.