Executives.

Changes at GeneralCologne Re

GeneralCologne Re, Stamford, Conn., has made several promotions:

* Joseph Brandon is now executive vice president of General Re Corp. and was named vice chairman and chief executive officer of General Reinsurance Corp. Brandon will oversee all North American reinsurance and insurance operations, including General Reinsurance Corp., Genesis, General Star, Fairfield Insurance Co. and GeneralCologne Life Re.

* Franklin Montross IV has been promoted to executive vice president of General Re Corp. and appointed as GeneralCologne Re's chief underwriting officer. In addition, Montross was named vice chairman and chief underwriting officer of General Reinsurance Corp. As GeneralCologne Re's chief underwriter, he has worldwide responsibility for the company's underwriting and actuarial practices and standards.

* Peter Lutke-Bornefeld will be CEO of Cologne Re and a member of the executive committee and executive vice president with responsibility for the business in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Far East, as well as for the multinational business unit. Lutke-Bornefeld also heads global information technology, international life/health, global human resources and global communications.

* Hans Peter Gerhardt was promoted to executive vice president, and as a member of the management board of Cologne Re, he is responsible for the German business unit. He also heads global alternative solutions, global aviation, global credit/bond reinsurance and broker market reinsurance operations.

* Elizabeth Monrad has been promoted to chief financial officer. Tim McCaffrey has been named general counsel of General Re Corp.

* Treaty reinsurance operations in North America have been consolidated and will be led jointly by Daniel Hickey and Christopher Migel, both of whom were advanced to executive vice president of General Reinsurance Corp. Hickey manages the national accounts division and Migel heads the regional/specialty division.

Conseco Names General Counsel

Conseco Inc., Carmel, Ind., has named David K. Herzog executive vice president, general counsel and secretary Herzog, 44, most recently was managing partner of the Indianapolis office of Baker & Daniels.

Herzog joined Baker & Daniels in 1980. He has concentrated his practice in business and commercial litigation. Since 1996, he has served on the firm's management committee and as chair of its finance subcommittee. He became the managing partner of the firm's 180-person office in Indianapolis in 1998.

WellPoint Taps Chief Medical Officer

WellPoint Health Networks Inc., Thousand Oaks, Calif., has named Woodrow Myers, who most recently was the director of health-care management at Ford Motor Co., as executive vice president and chief medical officer.

He will man-age WellPoint's health-care services division, including medical policy, clinical affairs and health services operations. He also is responsible for strategic initiatives designed to enhance the health-care experience for the company's members and to simplify administration and improve communications with physicians and other health-care professionals, WellPoint said.

RLI Appoints Board Member

Before joining Ford, Myers was corporate medical director for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and commissioner of health for the State of Indiana and for New York City He was also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and a fellow in critical-care medicine at Stanford University Medical Center.

RLI Corp., Peoria, Ill., has named F.L. (Lynn) McPheeters to its board. McPheeters will begin a one-year term expiring in 2001, filling the vacancy created by the 1999 resignation of Richard J. Haayen.

McPheeters is vice president and chief financial officer of Caterpillar Inc. He has responsibility for the corporate services division, which includes information services, accounting, tax, treasury, business intelligence and investor relations.

McPheeters began his career with Caterpillar in 1964 and has held various finance positions with the company, including assignments in Geneva and the Far East. He was a corporate treasurer of Caterpillar from 1996 until 1998. He was responsible for banking and funding relationships, trade financing policy, foreign exchange and interest risk management, pension-fund administration and Caterpillar Investment Management Ltd., the company's investment-advisory group. He was elected a Caterpillar vice president in 1998.

Crump Promotes Key Executives

Crump Insurance Services Inc., Dallas, has promoted Steve Conner to president and chief operating officer and Mike Johnston to national marketing director. Both have been with the company for more than 15 years.

Conner joined Crump in 1984, and in 1987 he was appointed president of Crump Insurance Services of Texas. Since 1993, he has been the regional executive vice president for the Crump Group, where he had oversight responsibility for several Crump offices nationwide. Conner succeeds Marcus Payne, who is retiring.

Johnston began his career at Crump as a casualty broker in 1985. Four years later, he was named president of Crump Insurance Services of Atlanta, and in 1993, he became regional director. Most recently, Johnston became national marketing director, assuming the lead role in market development and relationship building. Johnston is based in Atlanta and will continue to work out of that office.

Provident Mutual Promotes Springer

Provident Mutual, Berwyn, Pa., has promoted Linda M. Springer to senior vice president and controller. Springer is responsible for corporate financial reporting, planning and analysis, accounting operations and budget and expense management. She also Springer is responsible for insurance segment actuarial financial functions, corporate tax planning and compliance, payroll and the company's travel department.

Springer joined Provident Mutual in 1992 and has more than 23 years of industry experience. Her previous positions were with Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Coopers & Lybrand.

PacifiCare CEO Steps Down

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. said its president and chief executive officer has resigned, forcing the company to look for a new leader--the third to take the office in a year.

Word of President and CEO Robert W. O'Leary's resignation, which is effective immediately, came just two weeks after the company said third-quarter earnings would be lower than expected.

O'Leary had been at the helm only since June. He succeeded Alan R. Hoops, who announced plans to step down as company president and CEO in February.

PacifiCare said Chief Financial Officer Howard G. Phanstiel will assume the position of president and CEO on an interim basis. He joined the company in July, succeeding Robert B. Stearns, who resigned as executive vice president and CFO about a year ago.

Greg Crawford, an equity analyst with Fox-Pitt, Kelton, questioned the high turnover rate in the company's top ranks--saying it's "never ideal. A sudden resignation like this is not helpful. The Street always interprets sudden resignation as a negative."

He said O'leary may have felt his role had changed with the company's situation. "Originally, he took the job expecting a transition from a more capitated business model to one of more risk sharing with providers and facilities, and now it's quite obvious the situation is no longer a transition challenge but a turnaround challenge," Crawford said. "Perhaps there are others in the industry more suited toward that."

Earlier this year, PacifiCare announced it was moving away from capitated, or fixed, medical payments--the standard payment to providers for HMOs--and was moving toward contracts that share medical costs with hospitals and physicians. Some equity analysts have said this move has cut down dramatically on the company's profitability.