Thomas McInerney New CEO at Genworth

Thomas McInerney has been named president and chief executive of Genworth Financial, as the company has to deal with the future of its U.S. and Australian mortgage insurance operations. He starts on Jan. 1, 2013.

It was the collapse of the planned initial public offering of the Australian MI unit this past April that was a major factor in Michael Frazier’s resignation as chairman and CEO at the start of May.

In September Moody’s said it could slash its ratings of Genworth Financial if the parent company does not separate itself from the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiary.

Then in November, Fitch Ratings kept Genworth Life Insurance on a negative rating outlook in large part because of the “continuing, albeit lower” losses at its private mortgage insurance sister company.

McInerney’s experience is being an executive at life insurance companies. Most recently, he served as an advisor to The Boston Consulting Group. Before that, McInerney worked at ING, where he was chief operating officer, responsible for the worldwide insurance and investment management businesses. Prior to that, he served as CEO of ING Americas. He worked at Aetna for more than 20 years prior to ING, with his last position there being president of Aetna Financial Services.

Martin Klein, acting president and CEO at Genworth, returns to the chief financial officer job. James Riepe remains as nonexecutive chairman. Kevin Schneider is still head of the global MI business, a job he was promoted to days after Frazier resigned.