Dan Glaser, the former chief executive of insurance broker and benefits company Marsh & McLennan Cos., is joining private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC as an operating partner.
Mr. Glaser, who said in September that he would be retiring after a 40-year career in insurance, will work for a new financial-services unit that CD&R recently launched, firm executives said.
New York-based CD&R has long employed a model of pairing investing professionals with experts in running companies—known as operating partners—to buy businesses and try to improve their performance.
“I was attracted to the notion that by joining CD&R, not only do I have a firm that is focusing on operations, but they are starting something new,” he said.
Mr. Glaser started at Marsh & McLennan in 1982, leaving to work for a predecessor of Willis Towers Watson PLC and for American International Group Inc. before rejoining Marsh & McLennan. He held a series of senior leadership roles there, serving as chairman and CEO of its insurance-brokerage and risk-advisory subsidiary Marsh from 2007 to 2011 and group president and COO from 2011 until 2012, when he became CEO.
During the decade Mr. Glaser spent as CEO, Marsh & McLennan’s market capitalization climbed to over $80 billion, and the company did more than 140 acquisitions totaling over $14 billion.
CD&R manages $57 billion and is in the process of raising a new $20 billion fund, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Joseph Rice, Martin Dubilier and Eugene Clayton founded the firm in 1978. Mr. Rice had come from investment banking, while Messrs. Dubilier and Clayton had worked as corporate executives and management consultants. As the firm tells it, the three determined that finding a way to blend their collective skills was more important than financial engineering when it came to achieving sustainable performance in the buyout business.
CD&R targets investments in business services, consumer and retail, healthcare, industrials and technology. In September, it hired David Winokur from TowerBrook Capital Partners LP to run its new financial-services group.
Mr. Winokur said CD&R would focus on owning companies that provide services for larger, more mature, financial institutions such as banks and insurers that are struggling with risk management and earning their cost of capital, and dealing with regulation.
Beyond insurance, Mr. Glaser has deep knowledge of professional and retirement services and information and data services, Mr. Winokur said.
“He checks a lot of boxes for us,” he said.