Dateline: 16/11/1998
SCHAUMBURG, IL, November 16, 1998 -- Robert Fishman (currently of Summit, N.J.) has been appointed president of Zurich-American Insurance Group’s Diversified Products (ZADP) strategic business unit, effective January 1, 1999. He succeeds Frank Patalano who was named president and CEO of Zurich Commercial (Baltimore), Zurich’s middle market commercial insurer in the U.S.
Mr. Fishman is executive vice president in Zurich-American Specialties, where he heads the Customer Group of profit centers.
Mr. Fishman joined Zurich-American in 1994 as senior vice president of the Professional Liability profit center in Zurich-American Specialties. He was promoted to his present position three years later, where he’s held responsibility for the underwriting, risk management, and claims programs associated with Diversified Financial, Lawyers and Accountants, Architects and Engineers, Extended Service Contract, Specified Professions, Railroads and Professional Groups profit centers. He’s also served as interim manager of the Specialties Information Services department and spearheaded many of the process improvement efforts in the division.
Prior to joining Zurich-American, Mr. Fishman served as vice president and general manager of the Lexington Insurance Company with profit and loss responsibility for major professional liability products. In this role he was involved in product management and development, sales, marketing, and claims negotiation.
Before joining Lexington, Mr. Fishman was vice president and general manager of Progressive Risk Management Services at Progressive Corporation. He held a number of positions with BP America prior to working for Progressive. After graduating from law school, Mr. Fishman was in private practice for six years.
Mr. Fishman earned a B.A. degree with honors in economics from Hofstra University and a J.D. from the College of Law at the University of Toledo. Mr. Fishman commenced and completed the CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter) course of studies during 1990.
He and his family are relocating to Zurich-American’s corporate headquarters in Schaumburg, Ill.
Zurich-American Insurance Group is a member of the Zurich Financial Services Group, one of the global leaders in the financial services industry. Providing its customers with products and solutions in the areas of financial protection and asset accumulation, Zurich Financial Services concentrates its activities in four core businesses: non-life insurance, life insurance, reinsurance, and asset management.
Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, Zurich Financial Services' worldwide presence builds on strong positions in its three home markets: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. (It is the largest Swiss-based insurance group, the third largest non-life insurer in the UK, and the third largest property and casualty writer in the US. The Group is one of the world's top 10 asset managers with some $375 billion in assets under management.)
With offices in some 60 countries, Zurich Financial Services reaches over 30 million customers and employs more than 68,000 people.
Based on pro-forma consolidated figures for 1997, the Group achieved gross premiums of more than $44 billion. This amount includes insurance deposits as well as premiums from the Farmers Exchanges. The pro-forma net income for the year 1997 amounted to $2.1 billion. On December 31, 1997, the Zurich Financial Services Group had $375 billion of pro-forma assets under management of which $222 billion represents funds managed for third-party institutional and retail customers.
Media contact: Chris Tasher, Public Relations Manager
847-605-6372 chris.tasher@zurich.com