AOC Aon Corp.

KANSAS CITY, Mo., July 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Media/Professional Insurance, a division of Aon Corporation and one of the world's leading underwriters of media and miscellaneous professional liability insurance, today announced that Bob Lystad has been named Vice President of Claims. Mr. Lystad, most recently a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP, Washington D.C., has more than 15 years of media litigation experience defending newspapers, magazines, televisions stations, book publishers, and other media companies against claims for libel, invasion of privacy and related torts. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO ) "Bob is a tremendous addition to our senior management team," said Leib Dodell, President and CEO of Media/Professional Insurance. "His extensive media litigation experience combined with proven leadership ability provides a unique combination of skills to manage our already exemplary media claims department." Dodell said that while at Baker & Hostetler, Lystad worked closely with Bruce Sanford, an internationally known expert on media law, and handled many complex and important First Amendment cases. His involvement in Young v. New Haven Advocate et al., for example, created an important precedent protecting the media from being sued anywhere in the world simply because of content on their websites. In addition to his litigation experience, Lystad has been active in many media law organizations. He is currently the co-chair of the Media Law Resource Center's Committee on Federal Legislation; and former co-chair of the American Bar Association's First Amendment and Media Litigation Subcommittee on Libel, Rights of Privacy and Publicity, and Related Torts. He is a two- time recipient of the Society of Professional Journalist's First Amendment Award. Lystad is also a former journalist, having worked as a reporter for States News Service and Knight-Ridder newspapers. "At Media/Pro we have always taken pride in the talent and expertise of our media claims department, and Bob is the icing on the cake," Mr. Dodell said. "He will be a tremendous asset to the insurance companies we represent, to our brokers and other business partners, and particularly to our media insureds." About Media/Pro Media/Professional Insurance (M/PI), based in Kansas City, Mo., is the nation's largest provider of media liability insurance and a leading market for cyberspace liability and specialty errors and omissions insurance. M/PI is part of Aon Underwriting Managers, a division of Aon Corporation. About Aon Aon Corporation (NYSE:AOC) ( http://www.aon.com/ ) is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 46,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, and ERISA class actions, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's financial results, is contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contacts: Mike Enos, Media/Professional Insurance 816-292-7234, or Al Orendorff, 1.312.381.3153, . http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Media/Professional Insurance CONTACT: Mike Enos of Media-Professional Insurance, +1-816-292-7234, or Al Orendorff of Aon, +1-312-381-3153, Web site: http://www.aon.com/

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