ZURICH (Bloomberg) — Swiss Reinsurance Co., the reinsurer that turned to Warren Buffett last week for capital, replaced chief executive officer Jacques Aigrain after record losses wiped out more than a third of its market value in a week.

The board of directors accepted Aigrain's offer to resign and named deputy CEO Stefan Lippe, 53, as his successor, Swiss Re said in a statement yesterday.

The departure comes a week after Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he was "very impressed" by Aigrain's team and announced that was injecting 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.6 billion) into the reinsurer. Swiss Re said on February 5 it had a full-year loss of about 1 billion francs and will abandon Aigrain's strategy to increase profit by trading securities such as credit-default swaps, which led to write-downs of 6 billion francs in 2008.

Swiss Re is to close its Bermuda office in Mintflower Place with the loss of five jobs, as reported in this newspaper last week.