Tower Group International Ltd.’s chairman, president and CEO, Michael Lee, has resigned from the company and its board of directors to pursue other opportunities. Jan Van Gorder, who is the lead independent director of the company’s board of directors and a member of the board’s Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee, will succeed Lee as chairman of the board.
Tower said William Fox Jr. will succeed Lee as president and CEO of Tower, upon the finalization of his employment terms. He had served as a member of the board of directors and of the board’s Audit Committee and Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee until his resignation from the board on Dec. 31, 2013.
Van Gorder had served on the boards of directors of Tower Group Inc. (TGI), when TGI merged with a subsidiary of Canopius Group Holdings Ltd., and became a subsidiary of the company, and CastlePoint Holdings Ltd., when CastlePoint merged with a subsidiary of TGI. Fox served on the board of directors of TGI from 2006 until its merger with a subsidiary of Canopius in 2013, and then joined the board of directors of the company.
Tower Group added that, in January, it entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with ACP Re Ltd. and a wholly owned subsidiary of ACP Re, pursuant to which Tower will become a wholly owned subsidiary of ACP Re. The transaction is expected to close by the summer of 2014.
