Chief Executive Officer of XL Group plc.

Mike McGavick joined XL Group in 2008 as Chief Executive Officer. In his time as CEO, Mike has focused XL on new systems for Enterprise Risk Management, corporate governance and strategy development, enabling the company to maintain and build on its premier position as a global insurance and reinsurance provider of property, casualty and specialty products. Under Mike's guidance, the company achieved the highest performing stock listed on the S&P500 for 2009.

Mike was Chairman, President & CEO of the Seattle-based Safeco Corporation, which he joined in January 2001. He left in December 2005. Prior to joining Safeco, Mr. McGavick spent six years with the Chicago-based CNA Financial Corporation where he held various senior executive positions before becoming President and Chief Operating Officer of the company's largest commercial insurance operating unit.

Mike's insurance industry experience also includes two years as Director of the American Insurance Association's Superfund Improvement Project in Washington D.C. where he became the Association's lead strategist in working to transform US Superfund environmental laws.

Mike has been involved in a number of political and public affairs organizations, including serving as a Chief of Staff in the United States Senate, and running for the US Senate in the State of Washington. Mike’s deep interest in public policy has also led him to take an active role in organizations working to find innovative solutions to lift people out of poverty and strengthen civic institutions. Mike sits on the Board of the Rural Development Institute, a nonprofit organization of experts and attorneys helping the rural poor obtain legal rights to land. With offices and affiliates around the world, RDI works with governments, researchers, foreign aid agencies, and other partners to enact reforms of local land uses laws and policies to make meaningful progress in the developing world.

Among his many industry and community service involvements, Mike is a former Vice Chairman of the American Insurance Association, and was the founding Chairman of the Seattle-based Business Partnership for Early Learning (BPEL). He was named the Puget Sound Business Journal's Executive of the Year in 2003 for leading the turnaround of Safeco, and was the 2005 winner of the prestigious Charles E. Odegaard award for his efforts in promoting diversity at the University of Washington.

He is also a founding member of the Washington D.C.-based old boys rugby club, the Wild Geese RFC.