Leaders Under 40: Sven Trautner

Most careers in reinsurance don’t begin with a childhood ambition, and neither did Sven Trautner’s, who’s now chief strategy officer and a member of the executive committee at VIG Re. Well into a decade-long successful career in banking, he chose to reset and move into reinsurance, and never looked back.

“I’m not a naturally born reinsurer,” he laughed — and yet today he is helping guide the strategic direction of one of Europe’s fastest-growing young reinsurers.

As part of Intelligent Insurer’s Leaders Under 40 series, we spoke to rising executives whose journeys capture the changing face of the industry. Trautner’s story, defined by curiosity, humility and a willingness to start again mid-career, epitomises the kind of leadership the sector now rewards. It is a story worth telling, showing how reinvention can itself become a leadership asset.

A decade into his career in banking, already leading a team and firmly established in the financial sector, he felt something he couldn’t quite shake: an urge “to see something else”.

That instinct, paired with a friend mentioning an opening at Munich Re, changed the course of his professional life. “I had a look into this, and that was the first time I really started to think about reinsurance,” he recalled. “Then it clicked… I was in the industry, and since then, it didn’t let go of me.”

What held him wasn’t just the intellectual challenge. It was the unique mix of independence and purpose he couldn’t find in banking. “Reinsurance pretty quickly fascinated me,” Trautner said. “In banking, the result that you’re bringing is almost solely dependent on economic prosperity. That’s obviously super important in reinsurance as well. But whether there is a flood or a wildfire or a hurricane is completely independent of economic development, so it adds another layer to it, which I think makes it more interesting.”

“Things that became so natural in banking that I’d built over such a long time — became worthless overnight. I needed to start from scratch and ask the stupid and easy questions again and again.”

Reinsurance also resonated with him on a values level. “There’s a protection element. We help people in dire situations when everything’s at its worst. That’s a purpose I can very much relate to.”

A humbling restart — and the power of curiosity

When Trautner left banking for reinsurance, he didn’t glide in on seniority. He had to start again — properly start again. “Things that became so natural in banking that I’d built over such a long time — became worthless overnight,” he said. “Every junior who’d been there a year knew more about reinsurance than I did.”

That experience shaped him far more than any promotion. “It really humbles you to take that step back,” he said. “To say, here I can contribute with many things, but I need to start from scratch and ask the stupid and easy questions again and again.”

It also forged the leadership trait he now values most: curiosity. For Trautner, curiosity is not a soft skill. It’s the engine of talent.

“The most important thing is curiosity — this deep-down will to understand, to go further, to dig deeper,” he said. “Paired with a methodological toolkit and people skills, you can solve almost all of the problems we face.”

That belief now underpins how he hires. “I look very much into attitude rather than only specific industry knowledge,” he added. 

If Munich Re taught him humility, VIG Re taught him creation. When Trautner joined in October 2023, the corporate development function he now leads did not exist. There was no structure, no legacy process, no team. Just a mandate: build it.

“I was alone. No processes, no people,” he recalled. “At the same time, I was developing the vision for corporate development, presenting it to the board, speaking to employees, hiring my first team members… and creating templates and presentations myself.”

It was intense, exhilarating and, at times, overwhelming, especially with a newborn at home. It forced him into what he now sees as one of the biggest growth phases of his life: prioritising with discipline, managing simultaneous pressures, and constantly recalibrating between ambition and overload.

Crucially, the approach resonated. The board embraced the structured, transparent process he designed, but he remains careful not to let structure become bureaucracy. “We needed more process, but we also have to keep challenging ourselves not to overdo it.”

The department is now an embedded part of the company’s operating rhythm, supporting long-term planning as VIG Re continues its rapid evolution from a “big small company to a small big company”, as he describes it.

Innovation where it matters: fixing the backbone 

When discussing innovation, Trautner does not gravitate toward flashy concepts. His view is more pragmatic: the industry’s biggest opportunity sits in modernising its operational spine. 

“The biggest opportunity is in something that seems boring: operations,” he believes. The submission process, data flow, manual inputs, old formats — these, he argues, still slow the industry down and drain the time of people who should be focusing on judgment and client work.

“We still use a lot of old technologies,” he said. “Modern data management can help streamline processes, improve data quality and limit errors. And it frees up time for underwriting and client conversations.”

He sees huge potential in external data, too — satellite imagery, third-party information, new analytics sources — but believes the basics must come first. “We need to fix the backbone. Only then can we unlock time to evaluate risks properly and support clients better.”

Talent: what the industry must rethink

Trautner is clear that the industry has strengths it does not showcase fully to young professionals — global exposure, purpose, intellectual challenge, and multicultural environments. 

“I see almost no other industry that is by definition so international and global,” he said. “It brings together talent from all over the world with so many diverse backgrounds.”

He believes reinsurers should take a more active role in showing students what the sector looks like, rather than expecting them to “find” it.

He also sees a structural shift in the talent market. “We were used to being in a positive situation, people wanted to come to us. Now they can select. We have to advertise ourselves too.”

He supports career pathways that are more flexible and less siloed. “Move away from streamlined careers. Let people go into different roles — underwriting, strategy, client roles, projects — to become well-rounded personalities.” This openness, he argues, will not only attract better talent but create leaders who understand the entire value chain.

Asked what advice he would give to those starting out, Trautner didn’t hesitate: “Be curious. Put in the effort. Let your curiosity form your drive.”

But there was another element — one he sees younger professionals often hold back on. “Dare to speak up,” he said. “Raise your opinion even if it means sticking out.”

He recounted an experience from a leadership off-site: “There was a young person who raised a point and it completely changed the context of the conversation, but it was a perfectly valid point and a generational perspective we needed to hear.”

Such moments, he said, push thinking forward, especially in an industry where leaders are often older and shaped by different experiences. “Make yourself heard,” he said. “It’s truly value-adding.”

Trautner ended the conversation with genuine humility. “Yes, I’ve been nominated and shortlisted,” he said. “But in the end, this is a teamwork.

“You can’t be a leader if there’s no team you’re working with. Their hard work, creativity and motivation carry this. We built corporate development together, often from scratch, and I’m very thankful for that.”

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