What’s New: In Brief (November 14, 2006)

Hub International Limited (NYSE: HBG) (TSX: HBG) has appointed John P. Graham, 41, to the position of vice-president and CFO.
Graham replaces Dennis J. Pauls, who has been named president and CEO of Hub Ontario, the company’s regional hub headquartered in Toronto.
Graham brings nearly 20 years of public company and public accounting experience to Hub International. Most recently, he served as senior vice president finance, treasurer and assistant secretary at Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ: CECO).
At CECO, Graham’s responsibilities included due diligence oversight and integration efforts for multiple acquisitions, development of a global financial infrastructure and shared service center, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, risk management, and corporate financial reporting.
“John Graham’s experience and aptitudes will be important assets for Hub International and we anticipate his strong contribution as a member of our executive management team,” said Hub chairman and CEO Martin P. Hughes in a press release. “Our board and senior managers are highly confident John will implement a nearly seamless transition from the excellent work and momentum established by Dennis Pauls.
“John will be ably assisted in the transition by our vice-president, finance, Peter Scavetta, who has worked closely with Dennis over the past five years.”
Prior to assuming the role of president and CEO at Hub Ontario. Pauls had been CFO of Hub since the company’s founding in 1998. He managed the company’s financial development through three public offerings and more than 120 acquisitions.
“We’re very grateful to Dennis for his extraordinary efforts on behalf of the company, including his ability to manage both the financial operations and Hub Ontario while we conducted the search process over the past few weeks,” Hughes said.

Net premiums in the U.S. property/casualty industry increased moderately during the first half on 2006, according to Swiss Re’s new U.S. property & casualty insurance newsletter.
The newsletter shows that net premiums written in the United States grew moderately in the first half of 2006, by 2.1%.
“The [first-half 2006] combined ratio was exceptionally low at 92%,” Swiss Re noted in a statement announcing the newsletter. “For the full year, we expect a combined ratio of 98%.”
The U.S. property and casualty industry’s annualized ROE for the first half of 2006 was 14.9%, Swiss Re noted. “For the full-year 2006, we expect a ROE around 13%. “
Swiss Re said by the end of 2006, “we expect surplus growth around 8% fueled by strong operating earnings.”