QBE North America Appoints Carol A. N. Zacharias Senior Vice President, Underwriting Counsel

NEW YORK, March 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- QBE North America, an operating division of QBE Group, today announced that Carol A. N. Zacharias has joined the organization as Senior Vice President, Underwriting Counsel. In her new role, Ms. Zacharias will be responsible for leading the product development for QBE NA's Specialty Insurance and Standard Lines Property & Casualty business lines on a cross-commercial platform.  

Ms. Zacharias will drive continuous product innovation and new product development, oversee development of thought leadership, and serve as a spokesperson addressing both internal and external audiences on a broad range topics including insurance coverage matters, new and emerging risks, and the framing of key underwriting risk management issues for the insurance industry. Based in New York City, Ms. Zacharias will report to Kathleen Zortman, President, Standard Lines Property & Casualty; and to Jeff Grange, President, Specialty Insurance; while maintaining close alignment with QBE NA's Chief Underwriting Officer and team of product leaders as we build and bring new products to market.

"We're pleased to have Carol join our leadership team at QBE," said Ms. Zortman. "A proven property and casualty executive who has strong underwriting, legal, and senior leadership experience driving growth in business divisions, Ms. Zacharias comes to us with an impressive overall track record of success.

"Her appointment further underscores our commitment to underwriting excellence," added Ms. Zortman, "and her position with QBE North America's Standard Lines Property & Casualty business will provide new opportunities for us to expand our personal and commercial insurance products and programs."

Mr. Grange echoed Ms. Zortman's welcome, and added, "We look forward to having Carol on our team, as her leadership abilities, years of experience, and well-honed expertise in product innovation will drive further expansion of our market-leading portfolio of Specialty products including "The Solution". We also anticipate that she will assist in expanding our visibility, through events that spotlight the evolving storyline of our organization's capabilities in North America, and support the build out of our national franchise and multinational platform."

Ms. Zacharias most recently served as Executive Vice President, Deputy General Counsel for Chubb Group (formerly ACE Group), for the company's North American operations, where she provided legal advice, including regulatory, product development, contracts, and management and training to management and underwriters for a growing number of business divisions. These included: Professional Risk; Surety; Medical Risk; Canadian life, property and casualty operations; Commercial Risk Services; Excess Casualty; Construction; Product Recall; and Public Entity. She joined Chubb in 2003, as Senior Vice President, Underwriting Counsel.

A frequent industry speaker, Ms. Zacharias has written a variety of articles for leading insurance industry periodicals and trade publications.  As an attorney, she has held many leadership positions within her field, serving as chairman of the American Bar Association Business Law Section's Business Insurance Committee; Vice Chairman of the Professional, Officers' and Directors Liability Law Committee of the Tort and Insurance Practice Section; and co-chair of the insurance sub-committee of the American Bar Association Litigation Section's Committee on Corporate Counsel. She is a member of the Federal and New Jersey Bars, the American Bar Association, the American Corporate Counsel Association, and the Bar Association of the City of New York. In addition, she taught professional liability at New York's College of Insurance, and has contributed to a textbook on securities law. Ms. Zacharias was previously honored by Business Insurance Magazine, as she was chosen as one of the publication's "Women to Watch."

QBE Specialty underwrites risks and provides exemplary coverage and services to support the specialized needs of customers across a wide variety of segments and industry sectors. These include Accident & Health, Aviation, Public Company, Private Company, Commercial Errors & Omissions, Financial Institutions, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, Trade Credit, Transactional Liability, Surety and Inland Marine risk for appointed retail and wholesale producers.

QBE's Standard Lines - Property & Casualty division is a national franchise comprised of Commercial, Personal, Program, Risk Management, and Agricultural business, providing specialized products and solutions for personal and commercial clients.  

About QBE

QBE North America is part of QBE Insurance Group Limited, one of the largest insurers and reinsurers worldwide. QBE NA reported Gross Written Premiums in 2015 of $4.6 billion. QBE Insurance Group's 2015 results can be found at www.qbena.com. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, QBE operates out of 43 countries around the globe, with a presence in every key insurance market. The North America division, headquartered in New York, conducts business through its property and casualty insurance subsidiaries. QBE insurance companies are rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best and "A+" by Standard & Poor's. Additional information can be found at www.qbena.com, or follow QBE North America on Twitter.

SOURCE QBE North America