AIR Worldwide Appoints Dr. Milan Simic Managing Director of AIR London Office.

BOSTON -- AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) today announced that Dr. Milan Simic has been appointed managing director of AIR Worldwide Ltd., AIR's London office. Dr. Simic will be responsible for managing strategic operations in London, including overseeing the client services, software services and business development teams and providing strategic input to AIR's research efforts in the UK and internationally. Before joining AIR, Dr. Simic co-headed the ReMetrics Natural Hazards team at Benfield.

"Appointing Milan to head up AIR's London operations illustrates our commitment to our growing client base in the UK and Europe," said Uday Virkud, senior vice president at AIR Worldwide. "Dr. Simic's two decades of risk modeling experience will greatly benefit our clients and I am confident he will succeed in taking our growth strategy in London to the next level."

"I'm thrilled about joining AIR as they celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the first commercial catastrophe model," said Simic. "AIR is currently in a period of steep technical and commercial ascendancy and I want to play a key role in helping the company increase the level of service and support it provides by working closely with AIR's London and international clients."

A civil engineer by background, Dr. Simic has 19 years of experience in risk assessment, engineering consulting, research, and teaching. After graduating from the University of Belgrade, he worked on the design of dams at the university's Institute of Structural and Hydraulic Engineering while completing his MSc in Hydraulic Structures. After receiving his Ph.D. in Earthquake Engineering from the University of Bristol, Dr. Simic worked for an engineering consultancy, specializing in structures under extreme loading such as bridges, tall buildings, tunnels, offshore structures and nuclear power plants.

In 1999, Dr. Simic joined Benfield Natural Hazards, where he had a number of roles and responsibilities, including the management of complex international cat modeling projects and the development and coordination of Benfield's natural hazards R&D strategy, including the development of catastrophe models. He was a board member of the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre and responsible for maintaining active relationships with national and international government bodies, international financial organizations, and insurance regulators. Dr. Simic is a Chartered Engineer through the UK Institution of Civil Engineers, a regular speaker at catastrophe-related conferences and has authored numerous papers and feature articles on the subject of insurance loss assessment and soil-structure interaction.

Virkud continued, "The insurance industry is constantly changing and facing new challenges, especially in the area of catastrophe modeling. Dr. Simic's experience in the industry makes him ideally suited to lead AIR's London operations and well prepared to face the high demands from our global client base as we continue with our mission to provide the most credible and scientifically-based models in the industry."

About AIR Worldwide Corporation

AIR Worldwide Corporation (AIR) is a leading risk modeling company helping clients manage the financial impact of catastrophes and weather. Utilizing the latest science and technology, AIR models natural catastrophes in more than 40 countries and the risk from terrorism in the United States. Other areas of expertise include site-specific seismic engineering analysis, catastrophe bonds, and property replacement cost valuation. An ISO business, AIR was founded in 1987 to provide its insurance, reinsurance, corporate, and government clients a complete line of risk modeling software and consulting services that produce consistent and reliable results. Headquartered in Boston, AIR has additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.air-worldwide.com.