????夏末的蘇黎世有一種鄉村田園般的寧靜，不時有鳥兒掠過湖面，不久它們就將越過阿爾卑斯山，遷徙到南方過冬。然而，在8月26日，瑞士金融中心如畫的寧靜卻被打破。世界最大保險公司之一蘇黎世保險集團（Zurich Insurance Group）的首席財務官皮埃爾?沃蒂耶，被發現在其位于蘇黎世近郊的高檔住所內自縊身亡。沃蒂耶儀表堂堂，有著馬拉松運動員一般的體格。如今，53歲的他留下了兩個已經成年的孩子和他的妻子，撒手人寰。他的妻兒至今還記得，他在派對上展示的出色舞技讓他看上去對生活充滿熱愛，而不是痛苦。

????除了留給人們的印象之外，沃蒂耶還留下了兩封遺書，在商界引起了軒然大波，也讓蘇黎世保險集團（全球500強排名第123位）陣腳大亂。其中一封遺書是寫給家人的，而另外一封是寫給公司的。乍一看，第二封遺書像是一份商業公告，打印的內容開頭寫著：“致相關人士”。可實際上，這是對歐洲商界一位重量級人物的無情控訴：他就是蘇黎世董事會主席及前德意志銀行（Deutsche Bank）CEO約瑟夫?阿克曼。沃蒂耶稱，董事會主席傲慢霸道的作風讓他絕望——這種“有毒的”關系讓他的自殺看起來成為一種符合邏輯的逃避。這封遺書用英文寫成，這是沃蒂耶與阿克曼在一起交流時經常使用的語言。蘇黎世雙周刊金融雜志《Bilanz》引用看過遺書的人的話稱：“它是措辭激烈的斥責。沃蒂耶批評阿克曼的侵略性，說他是他見過的最差勁的董事會主席?！弊詺⑹录滋熘螅?5歲的阿克曼便離開了蘇黎世，他告訴董事會，雖然沃蒂耶的指責沒有根據，但這還是讓他覺得自己不再適合擔任董事會主席職位。

????接下來的幾周，金融界的許多人都在考慮一些深層次的問題。首先，一家大公司怎么會注意不到一位頗受愛戴的元老級高管有自殺傾向？沃蒂耶在蘇黎世高層中擁有很大的影響力，他在公司任職17年，而阿克曼在蘇黎世任職僅有1年時間。公司正在對此事進行內部調查，并很快任命阿克曼的副手湯姆?得?斯旺擔任董事會主席。公司CEO沈文天在9月3日的電話會議中向分析師保證，蘇黎世目前狀況良好。

????然而，不考慮沃蒂耶所面臨的痛苦，依然還有更深層次的問題：尤其是在經濟困難時期，面臨爆炸性的沖突，跨國公司高管面臨的壓力是否變得不可承受？而利潤動機是否正在踐踏高管的人性？很明顯，許多不如意的高管往往會選擇辭職，但自殺并不常見。而且在瑞士，這個問題尤其令人沉痛，因為就在沃蒂耶結束自己的生命幾周前，瑞士電信（Swisscom ）CEO卡斯滕?斯洛特也在瑞士首都伯爾尼附近的家中自殺。兩人自殺的原因驚人的相似，瑞士電信高層的個性沖突令斯洛特難以忍受。有人猜測，高管的生活是否被錯誤地扭曲。比約恩?約翰森說：“壓力和速度正在急速上升。”約翰森在蘇黎世創辦了以自己的名字命名的獵頭公司，而且他與沃蒂耶和阿克曼都是老相識。

????Zurich in the late summer is a place of bucolic serenity, where birds swoop across the lake, before beginning their migration South over the Alps. But on August 26, the picturesque calm in Switzerland's financial center was blown apart. Pierre Wauthier, the 53-year-old chief financial officer of one of the world's biggest underwriters, Zurich Insurance Group (ZURVY), was found hanging in the Wauthier family home, in the small upscale Zurich exurb of Walchwil. With clean-cut looks and a marathon-runner's build, the 53-year-old executive left two grown children and a wife, Fabienne, whose memory of his party-dance skills suggested a zest for life, rather than anguish.

????But Wauthier left something else, too, which has sent shock waves through the business world and left Zurich Insurance (No. 123 on the Global 500) reeling: Two suicide notes, one to his family, the other to the company. At first glance, the second looked like a business communiqué, typewritten under the heading, "To Whom It May Concern." Instead, it was a damning indictment of a towering figure in European business: Zurich's chairman and former Deutsche Bank CEO, Josef Ackermann. Wauthier said he'd been driven to desperation by the chairman's overbearing style -- a relationship so toxic, that suicide seemed a logical escape. Written in English, the language the two men typically spoke together, it was "a violent reproach," says Zurich's biweekly financial magazine Bilanz, citing several people who have read it. "It castigated Ackermann as aggressive and referred to him as the worst chairman he had ever experienced." Within days of the suicide, Ackermann, 65, was gone from Zurich, telling the board that although Wauthier's accusations were baseless, they rendered his position untenable.

????In the weeks since that tragic summer's end, many in the financial world have been left to ponder profound issues. First, how did a major corporation fail to notice that its longtime, much-liked executive was hurtling toward suicidal despair? Wauthier was deeply enmeshed in Zurich's top ranks, having spent 17 years at the company -- nearly 16 years longer than Ackermann. The company is conducting an internal probe into the affair and moved quickly to name Ackermann's deputy Tom De Swaan as its new chairman. In a September 3 conference call, CEO Martin Senn assured analysts Zurich was in good shape.

????But leaving aside Wauthier's torment, deeper questions remain: Has life at the top of these global behemoths become an unbearable pressure cooker, given to explosive conflicts, especially during tough economic times? And are profit motives trampling on human ones among executives? Clearly, many unhappy executives have opted simply to resign, and suicide remains a very rare event. Yet in Switzerland, those questions are especially poignant, since Wauthier killed himself just weeks after Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter took his life at his home near the capital Bern, after enduring a personality conflict at the top that seems chillingly similar. Some now wonder whether things have gone badly awry with executive life. "The pressure and speed are increasing dramatically," says Bjorn Johansson, founder of a Zurich-based executive recuitment firm named for him, and a long-time acquaintance of both Wauthier and Ackermann.