Albert H. Swanke, Jr. Joins Gill and Roeser; Investment Banker to provide advisory services to insurance companies and related financial entities.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2001

Gill and Roeser, Inc., a leading reinsurance intermediary and financial adviser to the insurance industry, has announced that Albert H. Swanke Jr. has joined the firm as a senior vice president.

Swanke will provide advisory and consulting services to insurance companies, insurance intermediaries, banks, and other related financial institutions. He will focus on capital formation, strategy development, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings, and mutual company strategies. He will also be active in Gill and Roeser's new Banks-In-Insurance consulting group.

Swanke has more than 30 years of management and executive experience in the insurance and venture capital industries. He has held senior level positions in finance, including mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring. He was founding partner of a venture capital firm and has been active in the development and management of new businesses.

Swanke comes to Gill and Roeser after four years as an independent financial advisor to the insurance and related financial services industries, focusing on private equity and investment banking. From 1992 to 1996, he was a managing director and a member of the Executive Committee of the Firemark Group, an insurance, research, consulting, investment banking and fund management firm in Morristown, N.J. Earlier, he was a founder and principal of Insurance Venture Partners of Darien, Conn., and served in executive and management positions with CIGNA (INA), American Express and American International Group. A Princeton, N.J., resident, he holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA from Yale.

"Mr. Swanke's broad experience will be a welcome addition to our organization," said Kirk Roeser, president of Gill and Roeser. "His background in insurance company management and his expertise in capital formation will make him a valuable resource in the work we do with a variety of financial services clients."

Swanke said he was pleased to bring his experience in private equity fundraising and insurance company management to an affiliation with Gill and Roeser. "The capital markets have not been kind to the smaller and mid-sized insurance entities recently, especially during this current period of consolidation," Swanke said. "There are very few quality advisory firms that are working in this end of the market, and Gill and Roeser is one of them. Several of my clients have been involved in various aspects of insurance e-commerce, and I hope to add my expertise in that area to Gill and Roeser's already considerable strengths."

About Gill and Roeser

Gill and Roeser is a New York-based reinsurance intermediary and financial advisor to insurance businesses. It has been advising insurance and reinsurance businesses for nearly 20 years, helping companies to develop and implement plans and policies that meet their strategic goals.

In the property and casualty, life and health, insurance and reinsurance fields, Gill and Roeser is expert in identifying merger or acquisition opportunities, evaluation and analysis, transaction structuring and financing. As a reinsurance intermediary, the company specializes in traditional, finite and program reinsurance, commutation, and runoff transactions. With more than $20 billion in asset and liability transfers since 1983, Gill and Roeser has established itself in the U.S. and abroad as a leading expert in these technically complex and rapidly changing fields.

Editors note: Photos of Albert Swanke are available by contacting: Robert Wick, 914/722-1400 or [e-mail]