History
Our Group was founded in Trieste in 1831 as Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche. It has grown into one of Europe's leading insurers and has retained the international spirit for which it has always been so well known.
Learn more about the history of the Generali Group.
The first agencies were opened in the Austria & CEE Region in 1832, just a few weeks after Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche was founded. Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Ljubljana came first, and Bucharest and Zagreb followed soon after.
The Group’s insurance companies in Central and Eastern Europe were nationalized after World War II, but Generali returned to the region at the very first opportunity, in 1989, when it set up a joint venture in Hungary. It thus became the first Western European insurance company to resume operations in Central and Eastern Europe. Generali began operations in Romania and the Czech Republic in 1993, in Slovenia in 1996, in Slovakia in 1997, in Poland in 1999, in Croatia in 2002 and in Serbia & Montenegro and Bulgaria in 2006.
In 2007, Generali and the Czech investment group PPF set up Generali PPF Holding (GPH) to combine all of Generali’s and the PPF Group’s insurance assets in the CEE Region. Generali took full control of GPH in 2015 so as to accelerate the successful development of Generali’s activities in Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, the holding company’s name was changed to Generali CEE Holding.
As of 1 January 2018 the Austria & CEE Regional Office extended its responsibilities to Austria.
As of 1st Sptember 2022 a new Business Unit is created, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Giovanni Liverani, current Country Manager Germany and Austria & CEE Officer ad interim, is appointed as CEO Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Stefan Lehmann, currently Chief Business Officer Exclusive Sales at Generali Deutschland, is appointed Country Manager Germany, reporting to the CEO of the new Business Unit, and joins the GMC.
Generali has appointed Manlio Lostuzzi as the Regional Officer of the Central Eastern Europe region, effective as of 1st September 2022.
The region is part of the International Business Unit, headed by CEO Jaime Anchústegui. The appointment follows the organizational changes, announced on 22nd June 2022, to support the priorities of the ‘Lifetime Partner 24: Driving Growth’ strategy. This new organizational structure included extending the geographical scope of the International Business Unit to the Central Eastern Europe region.
The International Business Unit, under the leadership of CEO International Jaime Anchústegui, will be organized in three regions:
- International - Asia, headed by Robert Leonardi;
- International - Central Eastern Europe, headed by Manlio Lostuzzi;
- International - Mediterranean & Latin America, headed by Santiago Villa.