AOC Aon Corp.

CHICAGO, March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Aon (NYSE:AOC) today announces that William M. Choate has been appointed executive vice president in charge of the middle market and head of Aon Risk Services' Southern Region. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO ) A 25-year industry veteran, Choate has held a number of senior positions in the southern U.S. throughout his career. He came to Aon from Wachovia, where he served as managing director of Wachovia Insurance Services and senior vice president. As managing director, Choate was responsible for Wachovia's national sales team, risk practice and industry groups and carrier relations and bank integration teams. Prior to coming to Wachovia, Choate served as managing director and head of Global Risk and Insurance Services for Marsh Inc. His career at Marsh began after Marsh merged with Johnson & Higgins, where Choate was managing principal. Said Greg Case, president and chief executive officer, Aon Corporation, "I am extremely excited to have Bill join our team. Aon is committed to creating an environment for world's best insurance and professional services talent. Adding a professional of Bill's talent to our team is a tremendous benefit for our clients and for Aon." Aon Risk Services Americas Chief Executive Officer Steve McGill said, "This is an important role for our organization and it was critical we fill it with an experienced, thoughtful insurance executive such as Bill. In this role, he will work with our exceptional office and practice leaders to develop unique value propositions to serve the middle market." "We are focused on winning at the local geographic level and winning with our most important client segment, the middle market," said Ted Devine, Aon head of corporate strategy and chief operating officer, Aon Risk Services Americas. "Bill's experience, expertise and leadership will be a great addition to the Aon team." In his new role at Aon, Choate will develop middle market strategies as well as oversee client and carrier relationships, sales and marketing, and business operations in the south. Choate will be based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Choate earned his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. About Aon Aon Corporation ( 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/

Copyright