Executives.Frontier Insurance Group Shakes Up Management Frontier Insurance Group Inc., which has posted net losses for two years in a row, has named a turnaround specialist to its board. Jerry E. Goldress has been named nonexecutive chairman of the board. Goldress is chairman and chief executive officer of Grisanti, Galef & Goldress Inc., a turnaround specialist and corporate crisis-management company based in Incline Village, Nev. Harry W. Rhulen, the son of the company's founder, Walter Rhulen, will continue to serve as president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of the company, which is based in Rock Hill, N.Y Also, Alan Gerry has resigned from the board. The board's nominating committee A nominating committee is a group formed usually from inside the membership of an organization for the purpose of nominating candidates for office within the organization. It works similarly to an electoral college, the main difference being that the available candidates, either has begun a search for Gerry's replacement. Frontier said Mark Misbler was named executive vice president and president of Frontier Insurance Co., succeeding Ted Rupley, who resigned to pursue other business opportunities. Mishler was formerly the chief financial officer of Frontier. Pat Kenny' executive vice president, has assumed the additional role of CFO See Chief Financial Officer. . Jacob Billig resigned as vice president of investor relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. . Richard Seyffarth, executive vice president and chief investment officer, assumes investor relations responsibilities. "It's hard to say what the impact of that will be," said Steven Huffines, an analyst with First Union Securities. "I think it's important that the company continue open and honest communication with both the investment community and insurance community, brokers and agents on what the company's condition is. That's the first step to regaining confidence and credibility." Citigroup CFO Joins Priceline Heidi G. Miller, former executive vice president and chief financial officer of Citigroup Inc., will join Price-line.com as senior executive vice president of strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. and administration and chief financial officer. Miller will report to Richard S. Braddock, Priceline.com's chairman and chief executive officer and former president of New York-based Citigroup. In addition to her duties as CFO, she will become Priceline.com's senior business development official and lead the company's strategic development efforts, both domestically and internationally She also will join the Priceline.com board. Miller joined Travelers Group in January 1992 and became its CFO in 1995. Immediately following the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group, she was named CFO of the newly created Citigroup. In 1999,Fortune magazine selected Miller as the second-most powerful businesswoman in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Priceline,com is an Internet-based company that presents consumer offers to sellers who then may fill as much of the guaranteed demand as they wish at prices determined by buyers. Young Joins RGA RGA Reinsurance Group of America RGA Return Goods Authorization RGA Republican Governors Association RGA Residual Gas Analyzer RGA Royal Garrison Artillery RGA Restricted Growth Association (UK) RGA Rate Gyro Assembly and RGA Re Melville J. Young has been named executive vice president of Reinsurance The contract made between an insurance company and a third party to protect the insurance company from losses. The contract provides for the third party to pay for the loss sustained by the insurance company when the company makes a payment on the original contract. Group of America Inc. and executive vice president and vice chairman of RGA Reinsurance Co. Young comes to the company from TillinghastTowers Perrin in Stamford, Conn, where he had worked since 1985, most recently as a principal. He specialized in actuarial ac·tu·ar·y n. pl. ac·tu·ar·ies A statistician who computes insurance risks and premiums. [Latin consulting for life insurance companies and life insurance marketing organizations, with emphasis in the areas of life reinsurance, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. Young is chairman of the Northeast Tax Study Group and the Organization for Multinational Insurance Taxation. Ohio Casualty Replaces CEO Ohio Casualty Corp., Fairfield, Ohio Fairfield is a city in Butler County, Ohio, United States, near Cincinnati. The population was 42,097 at the 2000 census. On December 28, 1994, the city withdrew from Fairfield Township. There was another town named Fairfield, Ohio that was located Northeast of Dayton, Ohio. , has named William L. Woodall president and chief executive officer as it continues its previously announced reorganization plan A scheme authorized by federal law and promulgated by the president whereby he or she alters the structure of federal agencies to promote government efficiency and economy through a transfer, consolidation, coordination, authorization, or abolition of functions. . Woodall, who had been vice chairman of the board and former president of the company, replaces Lauren N. Patch, who resigned to pursue other business opportunities, the company said in a statement. Woodall has also been appointed chairman of the board. He succeeds Joseph L. Marcum, who cannot seek re-election under the board's mandatory retirement A mandatory retirement age is the age at which persons who hold certain jobs or offices are required by statute to step down, or retire. Typically, mandatory retirement ages are justified by the argument that certain occupations are either too dangerous (military personnel) policy. Brown & Brown Names CFO Brown & Brown Inc., Daytona Beach Daytona Beach (dātō`nə), city (1990 pop. 61,921), Volusia co., NE Fla., on the Atlantic coast and Halifax River (a lagoon); inc. 1876. Center of a rapidly urbanizing area, in a region settled by Spanish Franciscans in the 17th cent. , Fla., has named Cory T. Walker chief financial officer. Jeffrey R. Paro, who had been CFO, will assume sales management Sales Management Role and Goal Importance of sales management is critical for any commercial organization. Expanding business in not possible without increasing sales volumes, and effective sales management goal is to organize sales team work in such a manner that ensures a responsibilities within the company's West Palm Beach, Fla., office. Walker previously served as CFO of Brown & Brown after the company merged with Poe & Associates in 1993. Subsequently, in keeping with Brown & Brown's policy of rotating ro·tate v. ro·tat·ed, ro·tat·ing, ro·tates v.intr. 1. To turn around on an axis or center. 2. financial officers to field sales management positions, he spent five years as head of the company's California operations. David Lewis The name David Lewis may refer to several people: Academics
"Having a rotating CFO has been a different strategy, and I'm not sure they got the benefits they had hoped for," Lewis said. The new strategy is to have one CFO the investment community can get to know, he said. Brown & Brown said it is establishing the position of chief acquisition officer, which will be rotational to give the company the management training flexibility it feels is important. Aetna CEO Huber Resigns; Donaldson Takes Over Post Aetna Inc.'s chairman, president and chief executive officer, Richard L. Huber, resigned Feb. 25 and was immediately replaced by William H. Donaldson, co-founder of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, an investment-banking firm. Huber had been under fire, as Aetna's stock price had been sinking for the past year. Disgruntled dis·grun·tle tr.v. dis·grun·tled, dis·grun·tling, dis·grun·tles To make discontented. [dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen; see investors wanted Huber to either step down or be dismissed. Aetna said in December that its board had been considering various ways to improve stock performance and that the stock price had been disconnected from the company's actual value. The insurer's stock had slipped from a high of $99.875 a share in May to $46.50 on Oct. 1. Huber was expected to announce his retirement in 2001, so his departure did not come as a total surprise. "It was discussed and rumored for a while," said Todd Richter, an analyst for Banc of America Securities. "It is not surprising when a CEO either is fired or resigns after a stock has performed this poorly." Ira Zuckerman, an equity analyst at Nutmeg nutmeg, name applied to members of the family Myristicaceae. The true nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is an evergreen tree native to the Moluccas but now cultivated elsewhere in the tropics and to a limited extent in S Florida. Securities, said it's not clear that Huber's exit would improve the company's stock price. Donaldson has an outstanding reputation and a longstanding career in the financial-services industry, Richter said. On March 13, Aetna's board announced that it would split the company's global health and global financial-services businesses into two independent, publicly traded companies publicly traded company A company whose shares of common stock are held by the public and are available for purchase by investors. The shares of publicly traded firms are bought and sold on the organized exchanges or in the over-the-counter market. . Aetna is looking "to enhance shareholder value and improve the quality of our services," Donaldson said in a statement. He added that the best way to do this is by separating into two businesses. The decision means that Aetna will decline a $10 billion acquisition bid from WellPoint Health Networks Inc. and ING American Insurance Holdings. The offer proposed a transaction that would have paid shareholders $70 a share in value. Eric Thorsen Humana CEO Predicts Patients Soon Will Have More Say in Care In the future, managed-care companies will allow patients to make more decisions for their own care, said Michael B. McCallister, Humana Inc.'s newly named president and chief executive officer. "There will be a fundamental change in benefit design," McCallister said. "We will have the member patient more engaged in the decision making. The word 'management' almost goes away in all of this." But McCallister said freedom of choice would result in more out-of-pocket expenses out-of-pocket expenses n. moneys paid directly for necessary items by a contractor, trustee, executor, administrator or any person responsible to cover expenses not detailed by agreement. for individuals and more point-of-service type plans. "Members can have anything they want; it will just be a question of cost," he said. Under this scenario, patients would be able to go to any doctor or hospital for treatment, but some providers might require higher copays, McCallister said. For instance, Humana, Louisville, Ky., plans to expand other programs to mirror three-tier pharmacy plans, where the copay co·pay n. A copayment. increases with the price of the drug. Under the three-tier plan, a patient pays the lowest copay for a generic drug generic drug, a drug sold or prescribed under the nonproprietary name of its active ingredients or under a generally descriptive name rather than under a brand or trade name. , with brand name drugs costing more. Patients pay an even higher fee for a new drug not yet on the company's formulary formulary /for·mu·lary/ (for´mu-lar?e) a collection of recipes, formulas, and prescriptions. National Formulary see under N. for·mu·lar·y n. . McCallister, who has been with Humana for 26 years, has been a member of Humana's four-person office of the chairman since August. He said HMOs have saved the country an estimated $300 billion in 1999 alone. "Managed care has done an absolutely wonderful service for this economy. The problem is we're not really getting any credit for that," he said. HMOs are turning to technological advances because health care is largely a transaction-based business, McCallister said. "Our company is going to move very quickly to take advantage of technology with our existing business, to change our level of service and to create an insurance product that is completely driven off a technology platform." By moving claims processing online, the company could stop sending piles of paperwork to large companies. Companies could pay premiums electronically, and providers could receive reimbursements electronically through direct deposit. Providers and patients also could access cost and service information. Humana is building an electronic network in Cincinnati, where providers are beginning to submit claims and be paid electronically. A system could be in place by the end of next year, McCallister said. Meg Green |
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