Alea Names Ricciardelli President and COO

Alea Group Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd., a global reinsurance and specialty insurance company, has named Mark L. Ricciardelli as Group President and Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately.

As President and COO, he will have oversight for Alea Group’s operating units. Ricciardelli will be based in the Group’s offices in Connecticut, where Alea North America is headquartered. He and his family reside in Avon, Conn.

He joins Alea after serving as President and CEO, Global Casualty, of General Electric’s Employers Reinsurance Corporation (GE ERC), where he designed and built the organizational structure of the Global Casualty P&L. He established a new leadership team and the global product strategy for casualty for all ERC group companies.

“Mr. Ricciardelli’s initiatives have resulted in significantly reduced portfolio volatility and dramatically improved portfolio transparency and financial performance,” said the announcement. “From 2001 through 2002 he served as Senior VP – Facultative P&C Reinsurance North America at ERC, where he led the restructuring of underwriting and marketing for this operation. From 1997 through 2001, he was President and Chief Executive of ERC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., based in Singapore, responsible for the Life, Non Life and Business Development activities in the Asia Pacific Region. Prior to this, he served for a year as Senior Vice President with GE Capital’s Equity Capital Group in Stamford. He began his tenure at GE as manager of the GE ERC New York Branch from 1989 through 1995.”

Ricciardelli started his career in insurance with Travelers Insurance Company in 1976. In 1978, he moved to the Swiss Re-North American Re group of companies where, over eleven years, he held positions of increasing underwriting and leadership responsibility and ultimately served as Vice President, Director of Marketing and a member of the Executive Committee for Western Atlantic Re.

“We are delighted to welcome Mark to Alea,” stated CEO Dennis Purkiss. “Mark brings over 28 years of insurance-reinsurance experience to his new role, the last fifteen spent with GE, principally in its Employers Reinsurance Corporation unit. His substantial experience in all aspects of reinsurance and history of operational expertise, including his most recent work leading GE ERC’s global casualty business, make him ideally suited for his new role as our President and COO.”

“As President and COO, Mark will have responsibility for implementing strategies that drive top and bottom line growth for the Company,” indicated Perry Golkin, an Alea board member and a member of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., an affiliate of which is Alea’s largest shareholder. “His diverse career in the reinsurance industry has provided him with a remarkably well balanced knowledge of all aspects of the business, particularly in such areas as underwriting, financial and operational management, marketing and client relations.”

The bulletin noted that “at the time of its initial public offering in November 2003, Alea Group indicated that it would seek to broaden its management team, given the significant growth opportunity that exists in the Company’s targeted markets of casualty, alternative risk and excess & surplus lines.”

Ricciardelli commented: “I am delighted to be joining Alea and look forward to working with Alea’s talented team of professionals to realize growth through existing and new strategies. Alea’s strong capital base, global reach and diverse product offerings, complemented by the strength of its underwriting expertise, position it extraordinarily well to capitalize on significant opportunities in its markets now and in the future. This is an exciting time for the Company, and I look forward to working with my Alea colleagues to achieve the next level in its development and to drive continued improvements in its performance.”