Dateline: 16/01/2003
SCHAUMBURG, Ill., January 16, 2003 -- Elizabeth M. Lestan has been named head of Zurich Global Energy’s Risk Engineering, the business unit announced today. Zurich Global Energy is a leading provider of risk management solutions for oil and gas, petrochemical, natural resources, mining and power operations worldwide and is part of Zurich North America, a leading commercial property-casualty insurance provider.
As head of risk engineering, Lestan will be responsible for all global risk management services, coordinating risk engineering analysis for onshore and offshore energy risks. She will also manage the integration of the unit’s risk engineering services with claims and underwriting operations. Most recently Lestan, who will be based out of Zurich Global Energy’s New York office, was a senior risk engineer in Zurich North America's Services unit, where she served as an oil/petro specialist and oil/petro/mining team leader.
"Elizabeth will be a tremendous asset to Zurich Global Energy, due to her extensive engineering experience in the areas of oil refineries, chemical plants, power generation and offshore drilling platforms," said Bob Pulka, senior vice president, Zurich Global Energy. "Her highly-technical engineering skills fit well with our business. I am confident that her experience will significantly enhance our ability to provide innovative risk engineering solutions to satisfy our customers' needs."
Before joining Zurich North America, Lestan was a senior process engineer at Amoco Chemical after serving as consultant to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. She holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A in finance from Lewis University. In addition, she is a licensed professional engineer and holds Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designations.
Zurich Global Energy specializes in providing comprehensive risk solutions, risk engineering services and claims support tailored to the individual needs of oil and gas, petrochemical, natural resources, mining and power generation customers worldwide. In addition, the unit also provides a full range of marine products and services for all industries in the United States and London. Zurich Global Energy has offices in Atlanta, Bermuda, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Melbourne, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Zurich and the Asia-Pacific region.
Zurich North America (www.zurichna.com) is a leading commercial property-casualty insurance provider serving the multinational, middle market and small business sectors in the United States and Canada. Headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., Zurich North America has 11,650 employees and wrote $10.9 billion in premiums in 2001. Zurich North America includes the Zurich U.S. business units (Corporate Customer, Middle Markets, Small Business, Strategic Partnerships, Construction, Specialties, Zurich Global Energy and Empire Insurance Companies), as well as Universal Underwriters Group and Zurich North America Canada. The Zurich U.S. pool of companies is rated A (excellent) by A.M. Best and A+ (strong) by Standard & Poor's. Zurich North America is a member of the Zurich Financial Services Group.
The Zurich Financial Services Group (www.zurich.com) is an insurance-based financial services provider with an international network that focuses its activities on its key markets of North America, the United Kingdom and Continental Europe. Founded in 1872, Zurich is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. It has offices in approximately 60 countries and employs well over 70,000 people.
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Contact:
Elizabeth Woods
Zurich North America
917-534-4653
elizabeth.woods@zurichna.com
Jenna Focarino
Miller DeMartine Group
203-221-2790
jfocarino@mdgpr.com