Gonzalo Alberto Pérez shall be taking over as Chief Executive Officer of Grupo SURA as of April 1st

  • Perez, a lawyer, has served as Chief Executive Officer of Suramericana for the last 16 years and has worked for the Sura insurance companies for the last 38 years.
  • He is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Bancolombia, Grupo Nutresa, Celsia, as well as the SURA Insurance subsidiaries throughout Latin America.
  • His appointment follows the decision of the Company’s current Chief Executive Officer, Mr. David Bojanini Garcia, to retire on March 31st, as announced at the end of last January.

Grupo SURA’s Board of Directors, with the support of its Appointments and Remuneration Committee, announced on Thursday its decision to appoint Mr. Gonzalo Alberto Pérez as the Group’s new Chief Executive Officer, a position he shall be taking over as of April 1st, 2020.  This follows the decision of the Company’s current Chief Executive Officer, Mr. David Bojanini Garcia, to retire, as announced at the end of January.

Since 2003, Gonzalo Perez has served as Chief Executive Officer of Suramericana, a core subsidiary of Grupo SURA, a specialized player in the insurance /trend and risk management industry, which today is the fourth largest Latin American insurance company, with a presence spanning 9 countries throughout the region.

Mr. Perez holds a law degree from the Universidad de Medellin, as well as a specialization from Swiss Re Insurance, in Zürich Switzerland. He also completed the Kellogg Graduate School of Management´s CEO Management Program.  He has been working for the Suramericana companies for the last 38 years.  Before taking over his current position, he held various posts including Counsel for the Company’s Legal Department, Human Resource Manager, Head of the Medellin Brokerage Branch, Head of Corporate Business, Chief Corporate Business Officer and Chief Insurance and Capitalization Officer.

"I am very pleased with the Board’s decision. Gonzalo has, without doubt, the highest personal and professional qualities, and is the ideal person to lead the Sura Business Group in its next stage of development. I would like to make special mention of his extraordinary ability to motivate people towards greater, overarching purposes as well as his disruptive vision, which has led Suramericana to become a benchmark for our own insurance industry thanks to his ability to anticipate outcomes and stay one step ahead as the Company has continued to position itself today as a Trend and Risk Management Company", stated David Bojanini, Chief Executive Officer of Grupo SURA, after the Board of Directors announced this appointment.

Gonzalo Pérez shall now be responsible for leading the SURA Business Group, from the vantage point of the holding company, which has now become one of the most important operations in the Latin American financial services industry, that is to say, a leading player in the regional pension industry in terms of assets under management (through its subsidiary, SURA Asset Management),the fourth largest Latin American insurance company (through its subsidiary, Suramericana), the leading bank in Colombia and one of the main financial entities in Central America (as the main shareholder of Bancolombia). The Group is now present in 11 countries and serves 53 million clients and has a total of 60 thousand employees.

After learning of his appointment, Gonzalo Perez stated: "I would like to express my gratitude to the Board of Directors for the confidence placed in me upon giving me this enormous responsibility. I shall continue striving to deserve such trust on a daily basis. I would also like to thank Mr. David Bojanini for his leadership, which is something that I have deeply appreciated during all this time we have worked together. I continue firmly committed to building up the Group’s sustainability, with the same vision that we have always had of creating shared value for shareholders, employees, clients, suppliers and society as a whole.

Mr. Perez is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Grupo Bancolombia, Grupo Nutresa S.A., Celsia S.A. and the SURA Foundation. He is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Suramericana's subsidiaries (Seguros SURA) in nine Latin American countries, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra.

In accordance with this decision, Suramericana S.A. shall soon begin to evaluate potential candidates for taking over the position of Chief Executive Officer, of said Company, as part of the established succession plan.