Hartford Financial Reports Changes at the Top; Names Marra President

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. has named Thomas M. Marra to the newly created position of president and chief operating officer. Marra, 48, currently a member of the company’s board of directors and president and chief operating officer of Hartford Life, will assume his new role effective immediately. In his new role, Marra will oversee both The Hartford’s life operations and The Hartford’s property/casualty operations.

Ramani Ayer, 60, will relinquish his position as president but will continue as chairman and chief executive officer of The Hartford.

Also, David K. Zwiener, 52, currently the president and chief operating officer of its property/casualty operations, is leaving the firm.

Marra joined The Hartford in 1980 and has held a progression of senior leadership roles in The Hartford’s life operations. In 1994, he was named senior vice president and director of Individual Life and Annuities and in 2000 was promoted to chief operating officer of Hartford Life, becoming president in 2001.

Property/casualty operations

Associated with the announcement, The Hartford said that Zwiener, 52, currently a member of the company’s board of directors and the president and chief operating officer of its property/casualty operations, will leave The Hartford and the board. Zwiener, who joined the company in 1995 as its chief financial officer before assuming his present position in 2000, has accepted a position as managing director of The Carlyle Group’s newly formed Financial Institutions Group.

The Hartford has appointed as president and COO of property-casualty operations Neal S. Wolin, 45, until now the company’s executive vice president and general counsel. Wolin joined the company in 2001 after 11 years of public service in the U.S. government in the White House and, most recently, at the Department of the Treasury, where he served as general counsel. At The Hartford, Wolin has advised the CEO and the board on a wide range of legal, governance and government affairs matters and has overseen Heritage Holdings, the company’s property-casualty runoff business. As general counsel, he created a regulatory compliance organization. Wolin also presided over the company’s communications and marketing functions.

Life operations

With Marra moving to The Hartford’s world headquarters to assume his enterprise-wide role, leadership at Hartford Life will be shared by John C. Walters, 45 and Lizabeth H. Zlatkus, 48, presidents, respectively, of Hartford Life’s U.S. Wealth Management businesses and its International Wealth Management and Group Benefits businesses. Walters and Zlatkus will serve as co-chief operating officers of The Hartford’s life operations.

Walters joined Hartford Life in April 2000 from First Union Securities, the brokerage subsidiary of First Union Corp. U.S. Wealth Management, under Walters, ranks number one in variable annuity assets under management.

Zlatkus joined The Hartford in 1983 and has held increasingly responsible leadership roles in finance, risk management and business operations. International Wealth Management and Group Benefits, under Zlatkus, includes Hartford Life Insurance K.K. in Japan, Icatu Hartford in Brazil and Hartford Life Limited in the United Kingdom. Zlatkus’s organization is the number one seller of fully insured group disability insurance in the U.S. and the leading provider of variable annuities in Japan.

Legal and HR
The announcements related to The Hartford’s operating units were joined by two appointments rwithin the company’s corporate structure, both effective immediately.

Replacing Neal Wolin as executive vice president and general counsel of The Hartford is Alan J. Kreczko, 56, currently the company’s senior vice president and deputy general counsel. Kreczko joined The Hartford in 2003 following a distinguished 25-year career in the federal government including roles as legal advisor to the National Security Council and deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of State. He was most recently acting assistant secretary for refugees, population and migration at the State Department. During his tenure at The Hartford, Kreczko has been involved in legal issues related to both The Hartford’s property/casualty and life operations.

Eileen Whelley, 53, was named as executive vice president, human resources of The Hartford. Whelley joined The Hartford in late 2006 following 17 years with General Electric, where she held a succession of HR leadership roles. Most recently, she served as executive vice president of human resources for GE’s NBC Universal unit.

Since arriving at The Hartford, Whelley has worked with Ann M. de Raismes, executive vice president, human resources, as de Raismes’s designated successor. de Raismes, 56, will retire in December following a 23-year career in human resources at The Hartford.

Source: The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
www.thehartford.com.

Topics USA Property Property Casualty Casualty Human Resources