Marsh & McLennan Cos., the US-based global professional services and insurance brokerage firm, is seeking a new Chief Executive Officer after it fired Michael Cherkasky. The, the 207th largest corporation in the U.S. lost 19 percent of market value this year.

The insurance brokerage giant managed to rise 6 percent in pre-market trading today after the firm vowed in its latest statement to put into practice a new strategy that will raise the stock price. Cherkasky will continue to work within the New York- based Marsh & McLennan until the new CEO is found.

The company said its board reached the decision that a change in leadership would be the best way to move forward.

Cherkasky is a former prosecutor who negotiated in 2004 an $850 million settlement with Eliot Spitzer, but he proved less successful as he attempted to restore the $11.7 billion in market value wiped out by the New York attorney general's bid-rigging probe.

Since the 57-year-old was hired as the CEO of Marsh & McLennan, the firm’s shares fell 5.8 percent while the competition did the opposite. The No. 2 broker Aon Corp. added 145 percent and third-ranked Willis Group Holdings Ltd. climbed 1.7 percent in the same period.

Stanley Nabi, who helps oversee about $8 billion at New York-based Silvercrest Asset Management Group said that the main problem was that Cherkasky was just not the man for the job.

"He cleaned up the company there legally, but he's not an insurance person,'' said Nabi, who said he sold most of his Marsh & McLennan shares since 2005 when Cherkasky took charge.