Dateline: 05/02/1999
SCHAUMBURG, IL, February 5, 1999 -- Pierre Laurin has been appointed senior vice president and director of reinsurance for Zurich U.S. He succeeds Bob Stevenson, who has accepted a position as chief group reinsurance officer in Zurich Financial Services Group’s Home Office operations in Zurich, Switzerland.
In the past year, Mr. Laurin worked in the Chicago office of Zurich U.S. as a field underwriter for the International Accounts unit, with responsibility for large accounts casualty business. Prior to that assignment, he served as Zurich's chief corporate actuary in the Home Office of Zurich Financial Services Group in Zurich, Switzerland. In that assignment, he led initiatives on risk-based capital, management information, and a more systematic review of loss reserves for the various business units.
Prior to joining Zurich, Mr. Laurin was a consultant with Wyatt in Montreal and London, where he was head of its European risk management practice. He holds a baccalaureate degree in actuarial science from Laval Universite in Quebec City and master's degree in computer science from University of Western Ontario.
Zurich U.S. 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 $403 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 June 30, 1998, the Zurich Financial Services Group had $403 billion on pro-forma assets under management of which $239 billion represents funds managed for third-party institutional and retail customers.
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Media contact: Chris Tasher
Public Relations Manager, Zurich U.S.
847-605-6372
chris.tasher@zurich.com
