LeStrange to Retire as Endurance CEO, President; Cash to Succeed Him

Bermuda-based Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. announced that, effective March 1, 2010, David Cash will take over as its Chief Executive Officer. Kenneth J. LeStrange, the Company’s Chairman of the Board, President and CEO since its inception, will resign from the latter two positions as of that date. He will continue as Chairman of the Board of Directors until March 2, 2011.

William M. Jewett will become President of Endurance and will report to Cash. Both men will be nominated for election to Endurance’s Board of Directors in May of 2010.

“Ken LeStrange has done an outstanding job during his tenure, as evidenced by the Company’s 2009 results announced just yesterday,” stated William Bolinder, the Company’s Lead Director and Chairman of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors.

He described both Cash and Jewett as “the ideal individuals for their new roles, having proven themselves with consistent performance over the past several years.” He added that Le Strange had chosen to retire “with Endurance in great shape and with a solid foundation,” and that it was “the right time for him to begin to evolve his role and the Board determined to implement the Company’s existing succession plan. As part of the transition, the Board also determined to separate the roles of CEO and Chairman.”

Cash has been with Endurance since its founding in 2001, serving as the Company’s Chief Actuary/Chief Risk Officer, President of Endurance’s Bermuda operating company and, most recently, as the Company’s Chief Underwriting Officer. He previously worked for various Zurich Financial Services subsidiaries and prior to that served as a consulting actuary at Tillinghast-Towers Perrin.

Cash received an Msc. in mathematics from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He is also a native of Bermuda, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

Jewett joined Endurance in December 2002. He has served as President and CEO of Worldwide Reinsurance and President of the Company’s U.S. reinsurance subsidiary, Endurance Reinsurance Corporation of America. He was previously affiliated with Converium Reinsurance (North America), Centre Reinsurance Company of New York, NAC Re and Prudential Re.

Jewett holds an A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Cash lauded LeStrange’s efforts in building the company and providing the “hard work and thoughtful leadership” to do so. “Endurance has achieved a great deal in its short life and is well positioned to build on that success going forward,” he added.

Source: Endurance Specialty Holdings – http://www.endurance.bm