Gen Re CEO steps down

Joseph P. Brandon, chairman and chief executive of General Re Corp., left his post yesterday. His resignation from the Stamford, Conn.-based company is effective immediately, according to a statement from Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway, the Omaha, Neb., firm that is controlled by billionaire Warren E. Buffett, owns the insurance carrier. Franklin Montross, Gen Re’s president, will now helm the insurance carrier as chairman and CEO. Mr. Brandon’s departure follows a rocky court case. He had been named as an unindicted co-conspirator at a trial in which four ex-Gen Re executives, including former chief executive Ronald Ferguson, were found guilty of conspiracy and fraud for helping to inflate American International Group Inc.’s reserves by $500 million in 2000 and 2001. A fifth defendant, an executive from AIG of New York, had also been convicted in the late February trial. The legal brouhaha prompted the forced retirement of Maurice R. Greenberg, former chairman and CEO of AIG, in March 2005.