AOC Aon Corp.

CHICAGO, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aon announces that John Barrett has joined its Southern California executive team as resident managing director for Los Angeles. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO ) Barrett, 47, was formerly managing director of Marsh, Los Angeles where he built a strong reputation for being a leader in sales and relationship development, financial management, service management, and staff and professional development. During his 21-year tenure he held a number of senior retail brokerage positions, most recently serving as Managing Director and Office Head of Marsh, Los Angeles. In that role, he led a team of more than 400 employees and oversaw the growth operations in the greater Los Angeles area. Sam Cargill, formerly Los Angeles resident managing director, will now serve in a dual role as chairman of Aon Southern California and Aon Global Sales Leader - Americas. In this new capacity, Cargill will focus on developing new business and building stronger client relationships as well as joining John Barrett in leading Aon Southern California. "John is a leader who has a history of delivering exceptional business results," said Steve McGill, Aon Risk Services chief executive officer. "He has a unique ability to focus on the needs of clients as wells as the needs of staff." Ted Devine, Aon executive vice president and chief operating officer said, "John understands that focusing on recruiting, developing and retaining unmatched talent is the key to driving organization productivity. I have no doubt that that same strategic emphasis will lead to great results in our southern California region." Barrett joined Marsh in 1986 as a casualty account executive handling large risk management accounts. In 2001, Barrett was named Client Executive Practice Leader (CEPL), where he oversaw sales and relationship development, financial management, service management, and staff and professional development. Four years later, he assumed the role of CEPL for Marsh's southwest zone, comprised of five offices in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Barrett is currently the chairman of the board of directors for the Los Angeles March of Dimes, and is a former board member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, Insurance Brokers Association of the West, and Pepperdine University. Barrett holds a B.S. in marketing from Santa Clara University and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine. 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 43,000 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. For more information contact: Al Orendorff 312.381.3153 http://www.aon.com/newsroom 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, our ability to obtain regulatory or legislative changes to permit continuous sales of our supplemental Medicare health product, 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, ERISA class actions, the impact of the analysis of practices relating to stock options, 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. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Aon Corporation CONTACT: Al Orendorff of Aon Corporation, +1-312-381-3153, Web site: http://www.aon.com/

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