• 独家专访：托尼·程早年便承担挑战性重任，在美国再保险集团一路晋升。他将数十年职业生涯的稳健进阶，归功于不懈学习、永葆谦逊与勇担责任。在他的领导下，美国再保险集团在亚洲及其他地区不断扩大业务版图，激励那些有志于领导企业的人始终保持开放心态，追求持续成长。
获得重大晋升却选择推拒的情况实属罕见，但更罕见的是，向上级坦承自己尚未准备好承担该角色，却仍被委以重任。
然而，这正是美国再保险集团总裁托尼·程在职业生涯早期经历的非凡际遇。过去三十年间，托尼·程在美国再保险集团一路晋升，助力公司发展成如今为活跃保单持有人提供3.9万亿美元再保险保障的业界巨擘。
2025年，美国再保险集团宣布与公平控股公司（Equitable）达成一项价值15亿美元的里程碑式协议：为后者价值320亿美元的人寿保险保单提供再保险服务。这一交易巩固了美国再保险集团的行业领军地位，并有望为其未来多个季度的盈利增长注入动力。
今年夏天，托尼·程在接受《财富》杂志独家专访时，回顾了自己升任首席执行官这一至关重要的时刻，并谈到即便跻身高管之列，仍须保持谦逊的重要性。
为力求简洁，以下内容已作编辑删减。
托尼，在这个将频繁跳槽视作职业快速晋升捷径的时代，你选择了不同的路径——自1997年起一直在美国再保险集团内部晋升。职业操守的根源何在？是什么激励你长期坚守这家公司？
我出生于中国香港，父母都是教师。他们为四个孩子（我是最小的）的未来考虑，认为澳大利亚能提供他们期望的西式教育。因此，我从九个月大到二十岁的成长时光都在澳大利亚度过，很少出国旅行。
父母工作极其辛苦。母亲照料四个孩子，父亲则因教职薪资微薄、难以维系生计，而遗憾地放弃了他所钟爱的教书事业。后来，他们经营起一些小本生意，每逢周末，我们四个孩子都会去店里帮忙，每天工作12小时，却从未觉得有何不妥之处。父母的牺牲与辛勤付出深深影响了我，这些品质都是我希望传承给下一代的。
像许多在西方国家长大却有着亚洲家庭背景的人一样，我人生中可能只去过亚洲一次，因此，我在1997年抓住机会加入了美国再保险集团马来西亚分公司。
1999年至2002年期间，你返回美国攻读工商管理硕士学位，同时继续为美国再保险集团工作，而后离开美国赴香港办事处履新。你刚到任时，团队仅有10人。如今，亚太地区已有超过1000名员工，营收达40亿美元。与在成熟市场发展相比，新兴市场是否存在未被发掘的职业机会？
我们当时的业务规模很小，但实际上覆盖了约5亿人口——涵盖中国香港及马来西亚、泰国等地。我以精算师的身份加入，一年半后便被提拔为该业务板块的首席执行官。这着实令人心生忐忑，不是吗？
老板初次让我接任此职时，我大概是这样回应的：“不行，我年纪尚轻。”彼时我才29岁，可老板却并未将我的推辞放在心上。
我暗自思忖，成功的概率或许仅有10%，可这已然十分难得；而失败的几率却高达90%，但无论如何，我都能从中汲取诸多经验。彼时我既无房贷的重负，亦无子女的牵绊，满心所想的唯有学习。或许，这种持续学习的本能、热忱与动力，正源自我的父母皆为教师这一背景。
在美国再保险集团最新公布的财报中，公司营收达221亿美元。您在亚洲学到的创业精神，是如何助力公司实现全球业务增长的呢？
我们拼尽全力才将业务逐步做大。我在内部时常打趣道，大约每月一次，虫害防治公司的人会来，这便意味着我们能五点准时下班，不然除此之外，我们还能做什么呢？这彰显了我们的精神风貌。创业初期，就是要解决问题。我会对团队说：“咱们不妨一试。虽说深知此事艰难万分，但让我们放手一试。”
在美国，人们通常不会开发新产品或新事物，因为市场体量庞大，诸多领域已高度成熟、应有尽有。任何不错的点子似乎都已被前人想到，这倒也无可厚非。
在美国，人们更多聚焦于串联信息点，但其驱动力远不止于：“嘿，这里有个市场，我们想分一杯羹”，而在于创造新事物或是将现有元素重新组合，这样我们才能把“蛋糕”做大，进而在更广阔的价值创造空间里分得一杯羹。这一理念始终是公司的精神内核，如今不过是需要再度将其推向台前。
和我们采访过的许多其他《财富》美国500强企业首席执行官一样，您显然热爱学习。在人工智能有望颠覆劳动力市场的当下，您在招聘新人才时最看重哪些技能？
我只能想到我给正在读大学二年级的儿子的建议。正如年轻一代所了解的，人工智能将加速发展，因此首先他们必须具备使用人工智能并与之协同合作的能力。
归根结底，人们认为，人工智能可能取代那些在数学层面容易被取代的工作。上周在美国的一场员工大会上，我与一些风险管理专业人士交谈时提到，所有这些软技能都至关重要：你仍然需要掌握硬技能，无论技术如何发展，都要精通自己的专业技能；但愈发关键的是互动、沟通、串联信息点的能力，是理解信息、传达信息并将零散点串联起来的能力——这些显然是人工智能更难复制的。
或许终有一日人工智能能够达成这些，但到那时，你必须持续精进、自我提升。那么，这能给我们带来怎样的启示呢？它启示我们要不断适应、不断学习，有点像运动员——当他们失去比赛和拼搏的热情，就该退役了。
于我而言，一旦失去对学习与成长的热忱，便难以全力以赴了，因此学习或许仅仅是驱使我不断前行的动力。我从未说过“嘿，我想成为公司的首席执行官”，毕竟那时的我离这个目标尚有遥远的距离，我只是期望能得到公平对待，享受这段旅程以及成长的过程。
因此，对个人的启示是，你必须不断学习，保持谦逊。倘若缺乏谦逊，你就无法正视自身的短板与失败，只会将问题归咎于外部因素，而不会反思“在这件事里我有什么责任”。唯有如此，才能从中汲取教训。（*）
译者：中慧言-王芳
美国再保险集团的托尼·程接受《财富》杂志独家专访
• 独家专访：托尼·程早年便承担挑战性重任，在美国再保险集团一路晋升。他将数十年职业生涯的稳健进阶，归功于不懈学习、永葆谦逊与勇担责任。在他的领导下，美国再保险集团在亚洲及其他地区不断扩大业务版图，激励那些有志于领导企业的人始终保持开放心态，追求持续成长。
获得重大晋升却选择推拒的情况实属罕见，但更罕见的是，向上级坦承自己尚未准备好承担该角色，却仍被委以重任。
然而，这正是美国再保险集团总裁托尼·程在职业生涯早期经历的非凡际遇。过去三十年间，托尼·程在美国再保险集团一路晋升，助力公司发展成如今为活跃保单持有人提供3.9万亿美元再保险保障的业界巨擘。
2025年，美国再保险集团宣布与公平控股公司（Equitable）达成一项价值15亿美元的里程碑式协议：为后者价值320亿美元的人寿保险保单提供再保险服务。这一交易巩固了美国再保险集团的行业领军地位，并有望为其未来多个季度的盈利增长注入动力。
今年夏天，托尼·程在接受《财富》杂志独家专访时，回顾了自己升任首席执行官这一至关重要的时刻，并谈到即便跻身高管之列，仍须保持谦逊的重要性。
为力求简洁，以下内容已作编辑删减。
托尼，在这个将频繁跳槽视作职业快速晋升捷径的时代，你选择了不同的路径——自1997年起一直在美国再保险集团内部晋升。职业操守的根源何在？是什么激励你长期坚守这家公司？
我出生于中国香港，父母都是教师。他们为四个孩子（我是最小的）的未来考虑，认为澳大利亚能提供他们期望的西式教育。因此，我从九个月大到二十岁的成长时光都在澳大利亚度过，很少出国旅行。
父母工作极其辛苦。母亲照料四个孩子，父亲则因教职薪资微薄、难以维系生计，而遗憾地放弃了他所钟爱的教书事业。后来，他们经营起一些小本生意，每逢周末，我们四个孩子都会去店里帮忙，每天工作12小时，却从未觉得有何不妥之处。父母的牺牲与辛勤付出深深影响了我，这些品质都是我希望传承给下一代的。
像许多在西方国家长大却有着亚洲家庭背景的人一样，我人生中可能只去过亚洲一次，因此，我在1997年抓住机会加入了美国再保险集团马来西亚分公司。
1999年至2002年期间，你返回美国攻读工商管理硕士学位，同时继续为美国再保险集团工作，而后离开美国赴香港办事处履新。你刚到任时，团队仅有10人。如今，亚太地区已有超过1000名员工，营收达40亿美元。与在成熟市场发展相比，新兴市场是否存在未被发掘的职业机会？
我们当时的业务规模很小，但实际上覆盖了约5亿人口——涵盖中国香港及马来西亚、泰国等地。我以精算师的身份加入，一年半后便被提拔为该业务板块的首席执行官。这着实令人心生忐忑，不是吗？
老板初次让我接任此职时，我大概是这样回应的：“不行，我年纪尚轻。”彼时我才29岁，可老板却并未将我的推辞放在心上。
我暗自思忖，成功的概率或许仅有10%，可这已然十分难得；而失败的几率却高达90%，但无论如何，我都能从中汲取诸多经验。彼时我既无房贷的重负，亦无子女的牵绊，满心所想的唯有学习。或许，这种持续学习的本能、热忱与动力，正源自我的父母皆为教师这一背景。
在美国再保险集团最新公布的财报中，公司营收达221亿美元。您在亚洲学到的创业精神，是如何助力公司实现全球业务增长的呢？
我们拼尽全力才将业务逐步做大。我在内部时常打趣道，大约每月一次，虫害防治公司的人会来，这便意味着我们能五点准时下班，不然除此之外，我们还能做什么呢？这彰显了我们的精神风貌。创业初期，就是要解决问题。我会对团队说：“咱们不妨一试。虽说深知此事艰难万分，但让我们放手一试。”
在美国，人们通常不会开发新产品或新事物，因为市场体量庞大，诸多领域已高度成熟、应有尽有。任何不错的点子似乎都已被前人想到，这倒也无可厚非。
在美国，人们更多聚焦于串联信息点，但其驱动力远不止于：“嘿，这里有个市场，我们想分一杯羹”，而在于创造新事物或是将现有元素重新组合，这样我们才能把“蛋糕”做大，进而在更广阔的价值创造空间里分得一杯羹。这一理念始终是公司的精神内核，如今不过是需要再度将其推向台前。
和我们采访过的许多其他《财富》美国500强企业首席执行官一样，您显然热爱学习。在人工智能有望颠覆劳动力市场的当下，您在招聘新人才时最看重哪些技能？
我只能想到我给正在读大学二年级的儿子的建议。正如年轻一代所了解的，人工智能将加速发展，因此首先他们必须具备使用人工智能并与之协同合作的能力。
归根结底，人们认为，人工智能可能取代那些在数学层面容易被取代的工作。上周在美国的一场员工大会上，我与一些风险管理专业人士交谈时提到，所有这些软技能都至关重要：你仍然需要掌握硬技能，无论技术如何发展，都要精通自己的专业技能；但愈发关键的是互动、沟通、串联信息点的能力，是理解信息、传达信息并将零散点串联起来的能力——这些显然是人工智能更难复制的。
或许终有一日人工智能能够达成这些，但到那时，你必须持续精进、自我提升。那么，这能给我们带来怎样的启示呢？它启示我们要不断适应、不断学习，有点像运动员——当他们失去比赛和拼搏的热情，就该退役了。
于我而言，一旦失去对学习与成长的热忱，便难以全力以赴了，因此学习或许仅仅是驱使我不断前行的动力。我从未说过“嘿，我想成为公司的首席执行官”，毕竟那时的我离这个目标尚有遥远的距离，我只是期望能得到公平对待，享受这段旅程以及成长的过程。
因此，对个人的启示是，你必须不断学习，保持谦逊。倘若缺乏谦逊，你就无法正视自身的短板与失败，只会将问题归咎于外部因素，而不会反思“在这件事里我有什么责任”。唯有如此，才能从中汲取教训。（*）
译者：中慧言-王芳
EXCLUSIVE: Tony Cheng rose up the corporate ladder at Reinsurance Group of America by embracing challenging roles early and credits his steady, decades-long career growth to continual learning, humility, and a willingness to take on responsibility. His leadership helped expand RGA’s presence in Asia and beyond, encouraging individuals looking to lead companies to always be open to continued growth.
It’s rare to be offered a big promotion and turn it down, but it’s even rarer to warn superiors you don’t feel prepared for the role and be appointed anyway.
Yet that’s precisely what happened to Reinsurance Group of America boss, Tony Cheng, in his early years with the business. Cheng has worked his way up the ranks of RGA over the past three decades, helping grow the company to its current position of $3.9 trillion of reinsurance covering active policyholders.
In 2025, RGA announced a landmark $1.5 billion deal with Equitable to reinsure $32 billion worth of life insurance policies, securing its place as an industry leader and expected to boost earnings for quarters come.
Sitting down for an exclusive interview with Fortune this summer, Cheng reflected on that all-important promotion to CEO, and the value of staying humble even in the C-suite.
The following has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Tony, in an era where job-hopping is often seen as the fast track to career growth, you’ve chosen a different tactic—working up through RGA since 1997. Where did your work ethic come from, and what’s inspired your long-standing commitment to the company?
I was born in Hong Kong, and my parents—both teachers—felt for the future of their four kids (of which I was the youngest) Australia would provide the Western education they wanted. So I grew up in Australia from nine months to the age of 20 and didn’t travel overseas much.
My parents worked incredibly hard. Mom looked after the four kids and Dad unfortunately had to give up his love for teaching because it just wouldn’t pay the bills. Eventually they opened up small businesses and then we, the four kids, on the weekend would go work there—12 hour days—and didn’t think otherwise. That really bred in the sacrifice of the parents, the hard work, all things I’d wish to pass onto my kids.
Growing up as many of us in a Western country but very Asian family do, I think I went to Asia once in my life, so [I took] an opportunity to join RGA in 1997 in Malaysia.
Between 1999 and 2002 you returned to the States to earn an MBA while working for RGA, before leaving to head up the Hong Kong office. When you arrived, you had a team of 10. The Asia Pacific region now has more than 1,000 employees and revenues of $4 billion. Are there untapped career opportunities in emerging markets as opposed to progressing in established regions?
We had a very small operation, but we were actually covering about 500 million people. It was Hong Kong and Southeast Asia so Malaysia, Thailand, all those countries. I went there as the actuary, and a year and a half later they promoted me to be the CEO of that business. It was daunting, right?
The first time I was asked to take it by my boss, I sort of said, ‘No, I’m too young.’ At the time I was 29. He ignored that.
The equation in my mind was I’ve probably got a 10% chance of success—and that would be great—or a 90% chance of failure, but hey, I’m gonna learn a hell of a lot. I had no mortgage, no kids, so just wanted to learn. Maybe that instinct, that desire and drive to keep learning was from my parents being teachers.
In its latest financial results RGA reported revenues of $22.1 billion. How has the start-up mentality you learned in Asia helped grow the business globally?
We built that business up with incredible hard work. I’d joke internally that once every month or so pest control would come in, and that meant we could go home at 5 o’clock because what else were we going to do with ourselves? That was the spirit. In the early days, you solve problems. I’d say to the team: ‘Let’s just try. We know it’s really hard, but let’s just try.’
In the U.S., people usually don’t create new products or create new things because the market’s so big, a lot of it’s already played out and it’s been created. Any good idea has been thought of, and that’s truly okay.
It’s actually more connecting the dots in the U.S., but with a drive to not just settle on: ‘Hey, here’s the market, we want a share of it’ it’s a drive to create new things or a new combination of things so that we [can] increase the pie and share in that greater value creation. That’s always been in the company spirit, it was just really about bringing that out again to the forefront.
Like a lot of other Fortune 500 CEOs we speak to, you clearly have a love for learning. In a world where AI is expected to disrupt the labor market, what are the skills you’re looking for in new talent?
I can only think of what I advise my son, who’s in his second year of college. As the younger generation already knows, AI is gonna accelerate, and therefore number one they’ve absolutely got to be able to use it and partner with it.
Ultimately AI, one would think, is gonna replace whatever is mathematically easier to replace. Had a conversation at one of the town halls with some risk professionals in the U.S. last week and I said all those soft skills really matter, you’ve still got to learn the hard skills, you’ve got to understand your subject matter expertise regardless of technology, but increasingly all those abilities to interact, to communicate, to join the dots, to be able to understand information, communicate it, and just put those dots together is the stuff that’s gonna be obviously harder for AI to replicate.
Maybe it will one day, but then you’ve just got to keep elevating yourself. So, what is that a lesson of? It is a lesson of continually adapting, continually learning, a bit like a sports person. When they’ve lost their passion to play and fight, it’s time to retire.
For me, when I’ve lost that passion to learn and grow, you’re probably not gonna give it your full go, hence maybe the learning really just keeps me going. It’s not like I ever said, ‘Hey, I want to be the CEO of the company.’ I was so far away, I just wanted to be treated right and enjoy the journey and the growth,
So the lesson to individuals is you’ve just got to keep learning, you’ve got to be humble. If you’re not humble, you’re not gonna listen to yourself or your failings, you’re gonna blame them on something else as opposed to, ‘Well, what was my role in that?’ so I can learn.