PARIS, July 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The AXA Group (NYSE:AXA) announced today the appointment of Jean-Laurent Granier as CEO of the Mediterranean-Latin America Region (MedLA), which encompasses AXA's operations in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Morocco, Mexico, the Gulf countries and Lebanon, effective January 1st, 2010. He will succeed Jean-Raymond Abat, who is retiring from the AXA Group. Jean-Laurent Granier will become a member of the Group's Executive Committee from this date.
"AXA's Management Board joins me to warmly thank Jean-Raymond Abat for his commitment and his contribution to the growth of AXA. He has successfully built our business platform in the Mediterranean Region since 2003, recently achieving the integration of Winterthur in Spain and AXA Seguros' operations(1) in Mexico," said Henri de Castries, Chairman of the Management Board of AXA. "I am confident that Jean-Laurent, after successfully completing major projects at AXA France and developing our business in personal lines, will be able to build on Jean-Raymond's achievements, and I welcome him to the Group's executive committee on behalf of our entire team." With revenues of Euro 11 billion in 2008, the MedLA region accounts for 12% of AXA Group revenues. Today, 13,000 employees provide Life & Savings and Property & Casualty products, services and advice to more than 15 million clients across the region. Since its foundation in 2003 under the management of Jean-Raymond Abat, the MedLA region has grown its underlying earnings four-fold (to Euro 665 million in 2008) while significantly improving its clients' satisfaction(2), notably thanks to a growing engagement of its employees(3).
Jean-Laurent Granier joined UAP in 1990 until its merger with AXA in 1997. He worked in various positions at AXA France, where he was appointed head of Life Insurance in 2000 and CEO of AXA particuliers/professionnels in 2002. Jean-Laurent Granier is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and ENSAE and is a member of the Institut des Actuaires Francais (French Institute of Actuaries).
Jean-Raymond Abat spent most of his career with UAP, until its merger with AXA in 1997, when he was appointed CEO of AXA Seguros in Spain. In 2002, he added Portugal and South America to his portfolio. Since 2003, he has been CEO of the Mediterranean-Latin America region.
About AXA AXA Group is a worldwide leader in Financial Protection. AXA's operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. For full year 2008, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 91.2 billion and IFRS adjusted earnings to Euro 3.7 billion. AXA had Euro 981 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2008.
The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISIN FR0000120628 - Bloomberg: CS FP - Reuters: AXAF.PA). The American Depository Share is also listed on the NYSE under the ticker symbol AXA.
This press release is available on the AXA Group website: http://www.axa.com/ IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements contained herein are forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Please refer to AXA's Annual Report on Form 20-F and AXA's Document de Reference for the year ended December 31, 2008, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA's business. In particular, please refer to the section "Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in AXA's Annual Report on Form 20-F. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise.
(1) Formerly Seguros ING
(2) Customer satisfaction index increased to 77 from 69 over the period
(3) MedLA region employee engagement scope increased from 62 to 83 over the last 4 years DATASOURCE: AXA Group CONTACT: Emmanuel Touzeau, +33-1-40-75-46-74, Laurent Secheret, +33-1-40-75-48-17, or Armelle Vercken, +33-1-40-75-46-42, all of AXA Group Web Site: http://www.axa.com/
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