Travelers CEO Jay Fishman to Step Down

His replacement will be Alan D. Schnitzer, 49, who is now CEO of Travelers’ business and global insurance, the company’s largest business segment.

Jay Fishman, CEO of insurance giant Travelers, will step down from his role, effective December 1. Fishman first ran Travelers in 1998 before becoming co-chief operating officer of Citigroup in 2000 along side Chuck Prince.

Fishman said in November that he’d been diagnosed with a neuromuscular condition, without specifying the ailment. Fishman quit about a year later, leaving Weill and the rest of Wall Street to wonder how history might have been different if Fishman had chosen to remain.

Schnitzer was in charge of the company’s Financial, Professional and global Insurance segment, the company added.

“Alan is well prepared to build on our strong record, and the board and I agree that it is the right time to appoint a new leader”, Fishman said in a release. After his initial diagnosis, Fishman decided he wanted to keep doing what made him most fulfilled and remained CEO of Travelers, continuing to show up for work each day-the only difference being that he used a cane to help him walk.

The 49-year-old Schnitzer joined Travelers in 2007 and serves on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee created by the Dodd-Frank Act.

Fishman, who rarely seeks publicity, is a former protégé of the legendary Sandy Weill. Amidst substantial changes in our industry, we executed the successful merger of St. Paul and Travelers and set our course as a return-focused company. “The credit for our success is to be shared by everyone here”.

Fishman, who has led the company since April 2004 when the St. Paul Companies Inc merged with Travelers Property Casualty Corp, said he could be dealing with a variant of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly called Lou Gehrig’s disease. On Tuesday, he gave more details in a letter to shareholders.