Jay Fishman, Travelers' Former CEO, Dies At 63

(RTTNews) - Jay Fishman, the chairman and former chief executive of property and casualty insurer Travelers Cos Inc. (TRV), died on Friday.

Fishman, aged 63, had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and was replaced in 2015 as CEO by Alan Schnitzer.

Travelers said in a statement that John Dasburg was named chairman of the board.

"Though he would be too humble to admit it, Jay was an icon among corporate leaders," Schnitzer said.

Fishman became CEO of Travelers in April 2004 when St. Paul Companies Inc, which he had headed, merged with Travelers Property Casualty Corp, but stepped down from the top role last year. He was Executive Chairman since December 2015.

He first oversaw the business from 1998 to 2001 as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Travelers insurance business, when it was part of Citigroup Inc. Later, Citigroup spun off Travelers.

Fishman steered the insurer through the financial crisis, and emerged as one of the strongest U.S. financial firms. In 2009, the company, along with Cisco Systems Inc., replaced General Motors and Citigroup, to be in the 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average.

He was also there in the boards of Exxon Mobil Corp., and Carlyle Group LP, a private-equity firm. In 2012, he was named chairman of the New York City Ballet.

It was in 2014 that he said about his neuromuscular condition and that he might have been battling a variant of ALS, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease.

In 2015, Fishman helped raise $20 million for scientists to develop therapies to treat ALS.