DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Mark LaNeve, General Motors Co.'s (GM) sales chief and a
longtime executive, will become chief marketing officer at Allstate
Corp. (ALL).
LaNeve, 50, will oversee all of the insurer's marketing
initiatives, including brand stewardship, marketing and brand
strategy and advertising. As a member of the corporation's senior
management team, he will report to Chairman and Chief Executive
Thomas Wilson. He starts the new job Oct. 26.
Allstate has focused on improving customer loyalty in recent
quarters. LaNeve will succeed interim Chief Marketing Officer Joan
Walker, Allstate's senior vice president for corporate relations,
who will continue as a member of the senior management team in her
corporate relations role.
Last week, the Detroit auto maker said LaNeve would leave this
Thursday for a position in another industry. LaNeve headed sales
and marketing until GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson restructured
the management team and put former product head Bob Lutz in charge
of marketing.
Allstate saw its second-quarter earnings soar as its investment
results benefited from Wall Street's rally. Harder hit than most
insurers by losses on mortgage-related securities, the U.S.'s
largest publicly held personal-lines insurer ousted its
life-insurance chief as it scaled back those operations and halved
its dividend earlier this year. Last week, it named American
International Group Inc. (AIG) Vice Chairman Matthew Winter as the
new chief executive of Allstate Financial, its life-insurance and
annuities unit.
Allstate's shares recently traded at $31.75, down 0.5%. The
stock has gained 18% in the past year.
-By Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2357;
Kathy.Shwiff@dowjones.com
