GCO (Grupo Catalana Occidente) defines Occident's organisational structure

"In view of the imminent merger of the traditional business companies of GCO (Seguros Catalana Occidente, Plus Ultra Seguros and Seguros Bilbao), which will become Occident on 1 January, the company has defined its organisational structure"

GCO (Grupo Catalana Occidente) has defined the organisational structure of Occident, the company that in January will merge the activities of Seguros Catalana Occidente, Plus Ultra Seguros and Seguros Bilbao. The appointments are part of an orderly transition process and will become effective on 1 January 2024.

The current Managing Director of traditional business, Juan Closa, will become Managing Director of Occident. Closa has been connected to GCO since 1981. He is an economist and actuary who has also completed the Program for Management Development (PMD) at the IESE Business School, and Financial Analysis at the Instituto de Estudios Financieros. Throughout his career at GCO he has held various positions in Seguros Catalana Occidente until in 2017 he was appointed its top executive and subsequently, in 2020, he took over GCO's entire traditional business operations.

Three managerial departments will report to the general management: commercial direction, general insurance and life insurance.

Raúl Lucena, heading the commercial division holds a degree in Labour Relations from the University of Barcelona, and a PMD qualification from the IESE Business School.  Lucena has almost thirty years of experience at GCO, where he has held different positions in the commercial area of Seguros Catalana Occidente, until taking over the company's life business in 2017, and in 2022, he was also put in charge of traditional business. The commercial structure of Occident will be divided into three blocks: the agency channel, the channel for brokers and the channel for large brokers and institutions. In this regard, among the priorities of the new commercial management will be the continued development of the mediation channel, which consists of more than 15,000 professionals who provide services to more than 4.5 million insured parties. In turn, priority will be given to continuing to promote the tools needed for brokers to interact with the customer through the channel of their choice at any given time, and to provide the distribution channels with the training and support needed for their development, in the interests of offering the best service to customers.

Leading the general insurance management, is Josep Esclusa, an engineer who has completed the Program for Management Development (PMD) at the IESE Business School, and has an MBA from EADA. His trajectory at GCO dates back to 1991. Esclusa began his professional career in Prepersa, the company that manages the Group's external collaborator networks. After this, he held various positions in Seguros Catalana Occidente, and has been the deputy general manager of Plus Ultra Seguros and since 2022 in charge of GCO's traditional business insurance division. The challenges of this division include overseeing an underwriting policy that maintains the profitable growth of individual, car and company insurance products; as well as to continue to develop them according to the new trends in society. 

The management of life insurance will be led by Daniel Ciprés, an actuary and economist who has a master's degree in Management of Insurance and Financial Organisations from the University of Barcelona and also holds an Executive MBA from the IESE Business School. He joined NorteHispana Seguros in 2010, where he took responsibility for various technical and product areas, and subsequently, in 2021, he was placed at the helm of GCO's health business. One of the priorities of Ciprés, whose scope of management covers life risk, life savings, death and health insurance, will be responsible for developing solutions that cover the growing needs of saving and planning, in a context of a gradual increase in the average age of the Spanish population and the desire for an active and healthy retirement. He will also be working to make the digital health services available, increasingly demanded by the company's insured parties, and to promote the proper diagnosis of their needs to provide comprehensive advice, through unique tools such as the Needs Analysis (ADN). 

With the merger of traditional business entities in Occident, the insurance group will complete its corporate simplification strategy, which aims to become an entity that adapts more swiftly to market demands.

Hugo Serra, CEO of GCO thanked all the employees for their contribution to the traditional business over the last few decades and noted that “with this management team, Occident will now be well-equipped to deal with the challenges facing it, specifically greater demands from its customers who are increasingly demanding a comprehensive service, customised solutions and a close, professional relationship with their mediators".