David Young Named First Vice President of Strategy for Zurich North America's Middle Markets Business Unit.

Business Editors

SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 25, 2003

Zurich North America, a leading commercial property-casualty insurance company, announced today that David Young, CPCU, ARM, AIAF, AU, has been named first vice president of strategy for its Middle Markets business unit. In this newly created position, he reports directly to Don Hurzeler, CPCU, CLU, CEO of Zurich North America Middle Markets.

Young will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies that will directly impact the group's profitability. This will include working closely with other senior managers to create and launch process improvement initiatives, as well as the metrics to track and measure performance on a business unit, regional and branch office basis.

"Dave is uniquely qualified for this position, which draws on his strengths in finance, operations, marketing and underwriting," said Hurzeler. "He will be instrumental in helping our group improve and sustain profitability while achieving our value proposition goals."

Prior to joining Zurich, Young spent 15 years at Liberty Mutual, where he held underwriting and finance positions, most recently as division underwriting manager. In addition, he is chairman of the board of the Workers Compensation Reinsurance Association (WCRA) in Minnesota. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Duke University.

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 12,750 employees and wrote $13.6 billion in premiums in 2002. Zurich North America includes the Zurich U.S. business units (Corporate Customer, Middle Markets, Small Business, Construction, Specialties, Zurich Global Energy and Empire Insurance Companies), as well as Universal Underwriters Group, Zurich North America Canada, Zurich Corporate Solutions and Centre. 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 Zurich Financial Services ( www.zurich.com), 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 more than 50 countries and employs about 64,000 people. SWX Swiss Exchange/virt-x: ZURN

(Note to editor: an electronic photo of David Young is available upon request.)