Executive Moves

ING Financial Taps Ford As Chief Executive Officer

ING Group has hired Lynne Ford as chief executive officer of ING Financial Solutions, the company's transformed annuity and rollover business.

Ford was executive vice president and managing director of Wells Fargo's retail retirement group. She will report to Rob Leary, the chief executive officer of ING Insurance U.S. Bill Lowe, who was chief executive officer of ING Financial Solution, will continue as interim CEO until mid-January, and after that will continue to lead the marketing, sales and distribution for the business.

"Lynne's strong experience in the annuity and IRA arena and her strategic leadership of Wells Fargo's retirement initiative makes her an ideal candidate to lead ING Financial Solutions," Leary said. "As we undertake this new direction in the retirement solutions market, Lynne brings a fresh perspective to our strong expertise and position in the retirement and annuity marketplaces. Her innovative, customer-oriented approach and her retail background will be an asset to ING."

Ford has spent a majority of her professional career at Wachovia, which merged with Wells Fargo last year, serving in a number of executive capacities within its investment and distribution organizations. In her most recent position, Ford was responsible for the annuity and IRA products distributed across the company. This included the sales, marketing and product management for IRAs and annuities, as well as channel management, annuity operations and servicing. She was also responsible for the company's overall retail retirement strategy and branding as the company aimed to capitalize on the retirement market opportunity.

Jackson National Life Promotes Two Top Execs

Jackson National Life Insurance Co. has promoted two senior executives within its operations and information technology units. The Lansing, Mich., unit of London-based Prudential PLC promoted Laura Prieskorn, 41, to senior vice president and chief administrative officer, and J. Mark Clark, 49, to senior vice president and chief information officer.

In her new role, Prieskorn will oversee all departments and functions within Jackson's operational areas, including new business, policyholder services, broker management, claims and the telephone service center, as well as the company's relationship management and business analytics groups. She was vice president of the company's customer service center. Prieskom has worked for Jackson for 21 years.

As CIO, Clark will be responsible for all of the systems and programming departments that support Jackson and its subsidiaries. He joined Jackson in 1996 from Cooperative Technologies, a firm he co-founded. Before that, he was an IT applications system manager of actuarial systems at SunAmerica.

Merrill Veteran to Lead JHS Capital Advisors

A former Merrill Lynch southeast regional managing director has been tapped to run JHS Capital Advisors, the brokerage arm of the firm founded by former GunnAllen Chairman John Sykes.

Mary Kennemur, who spent 22 years at Merrill Lynch, will lead the wealth management division that Tampa, Fla.-based JHS bought from GunnAllen through its purchase of Pointe Capital late last month.

Sykes had bought a controlling stake in GunnAllen in September 2008. In December, he abruptly resigned from GunnAllen, along with a number of other directors of the board, raising questions about the future of the company. Following his resignation from GunnAllen, Sykes founded holding company JHS Capital Holdings, which subsequently bought Pointe Capital.

At Merrill Lynch, Kennemur oversaw advisers in the southeast region who generated a combined $850 million in annual revenue and oversaw assets in excess of $125 billion, according to JHS.

JHS said it is also looking to add to its ranks of advisers.

 

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