Insurance Brokerage

George Paul Cox, founder and president of Atlantic Agency Ltd., a Baltimore insurance brokerage, died of respiratory failure July 25 at Glen Meadows Retirement Community in Glen Arm. He was 99. Mr. Cox, whose career in the insurance industry spanned 70 years, established the business in 1980. He remained president and active in the business until his death. The former Mays Chapel resident was born and raised in Medford, Mass., where he graduated from high school. He began his career in the insurance industry in 1931, when he joined Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Massachusetts.

William John Salladin II, a former insurance executive who headed All Risks Ltd. for more than three decades, died Friday of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 67. Mr. Salladin, the son of an insurance executive and a homemaker, was born in Proctor, Vt. The family moved to Rumson, N.J., and then to Towson in 1957. After graduating from Towson High School in 1961, Mr. Salladin attended the University of Maryland, College Park. An animal lover, Mr. Salladin was 14 when he began working for a Towson veterinarian and had planned on studying to become a veterinarian.

Millionaire Democrat Raymond F. Schoenke Jr. announced yesterday he is selling the insurance brokerage that made him the fortune largely fueling his quest to become governor of Maryland.Schoenke, who has pledged to spend $2 million or more of his own money and has purchased a flood of television commercials, said he wants to concentrate all his efforts on his uphill gubernatorial campaign."I'm excited by the opportunity to close this chapter and open a new chapter," he said at his firm's headquarters in Germantown, Montgomery County.

Aon Corp. plans to slash more than one-third of its work force in Owings Mills as part of a companywide restructuring that will consolidate administrative support services for its U.S. retail brokerage operation and outsource some of it to India. The world's second-largest insurance brokerage said yesterday that it has notified 550 workers, including between 50 and 60 in Owings Mills, that their jobs will be eliminated over the course of the year. The Owings Mills office employs about 150. The Chicago-based company will consolidate services at a support center in Glenview, Ill., and close centers in New York and Houston.

Aon Corp. said it will take a $100 million charge during thefirst quarter of 1997 for expenses related to the acquisition of Alexander & Alexander Services Inc.Aon spokeswoman Joan Steel would not say yesterday how much of the charge is expected to pay for severance payments to workers who will lose their jobs because of the merger. That is an especially ticklish question in Owings Mills, where Alexander & Alexander has most of its administrative operations.Analysts have said many Owings Mills departments probably do the same things as departments that already exist at Aon."

NEW YORK - Jeffrey W. Greenberg, chief executive of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., resigned yesterday, 11 days after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused the company's subsidiary of rigging insurance prices and taking kickbacks. Greenberg ran the world's largest insurance brokerage for five years. He was replaced by Michael G. Cherkasky, the head of Marsh Inc., the Marsh & McLennan subsidiary that is the focus of accusations of misconduct. Cherkasky, the former head of Kroll Inc., the risk consultant Marsh & McLennan bought in July, was Spitzer's boss at the Manhattan district attorney's office more than a decade ago. He was promoted to head Marsh Inc. after Spitzer filed his lawsuit against the firm Oct. 14. "It is now time for the company to move forward to resolve the issues confronting it," Marsh & McLennan directors said in a statement.

Ending a two-year battle to turn around a sinking company with only mixed success, Alexander & Alexander Services Inc. said yesterday that it has agreed to be acquired by Chicago-based Aon Corp. in a deal valued at $1.23 billion.Alexander & Alexander is a New York-based brokerage firm for commercial insurance but has a large office in Baltimore, and all but its most senior administrative personnel are based in Owings Mills. It employs about 670 people in metropolitan Baltimore.Under yesterday's deal, Aon will pay $17.50 in cash for each share of Alexander & Alexander common stock, or about $790 million.

Aon Corp. plans to slash more than one-third of its work force in Owings Mills as part of a companywide restructuring that will consolidate administrative support services for its U.S. retail brokerage operation and outsource some of it to India. The world's second-largest insurance brokerage said yesterday that it has notified 550 workers, including between 50 and 60 in Owings Mills, that their jobs will be eliminated over the course of the year. The Owings Mills office employs about 150. The Chicago-based company will consolidate services at a support center in Glenview, Ill., and close centers in New York and Houston.

Meredith Dettor Jr., founder and president of a Towson insurance brokerage and World War II veteran, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in the Hampton section of Baltimore County. He was 83. Mr. Dettor was born in Baltimore and raised on Jonquil Avenue. He was a 1940 graduate of Forest Park High School and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. Trained as a pilot at Randolph Field in Texas, Mr. Dettor instructed foreign pilots and was then sent to aerial combat school. He was later assigned to Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold's West Coast Training Command as a flight commander and supervisor of instrument flying.

Alexander & Alexander Services Inc. said yesterday that it will pay up to $54 million for the U.S. arm of the world's eighth-biggest insurance brokerage firm, in a deal the New York brokerage company said marks its return to growth after a severe restructuring that eliminated 400 jobs.Alexander & Alexander is based in Manhattan, but the largest part of its administrative staff is in Owings Mills, where the company has almost 500 employees. It has more than 250 workers at a sales office in Baltimore as well.

Meredith Dettor Jr., founder and president of a Towson insurance brokerage and World War II veteran, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in the Hampton section of Baltimore County. He was 83. Mr. Dettor was born in Baltimore and raised on Jonquil Avenue. He was a 1940 graduate of Forest Park High School and enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941. Trained as a pilot at Randolph Field in Texas, Mr. Dettor instructed foreign pilots and was then sent to aerial combat school. He was later assigned to Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold's West Coast Training Command as a flight commander and supervisor of instrument flying.

NEW YORK - Jeffrey W. Greenberg, chief executive of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., resigned yesterday, 11 days after New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused the company's subsidiary of rigging insurance prices and taking kickbacks. Greenberg ran the world's largest insurance brokerage for five years. He was replaced by Michael G. Cherkasky, the head of Marsh Inc., the Marsh & McLennan subsidiary that is the focus of accusations of misconduct. Cherkasky, the former head of Kroll Inc., the risk consultant Marsh & McLennan bought in July, was Spitzer's boss at the Manhattan district attorney's office more than a decade ago. He was promoted to head Marsh Inc. after Spitzer filed his lawsuit against the firm Oct. 14. "It is now time for the company to move forward to resolve the issues confronting it," Marsh & McLennan directors said in a statement.

Board members of Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. reportedly are discussing a deal to assure the departure of chief executive Jeffrey W. Greenberg over allegations of widespread bid rigging and fraud by the nation's largest insurance brokerage. The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, quoting people close to the talks, said Greenberg is expected to step down. Marsh & McLennan spokeswoman Barbara Perlmutter didn't return phone calls seeking comment on the newspaper reports. Jules Kroll, founder of Kroll Inc., the investigations company that Marsh & McLennan bought this year, denied a Financial Times report that he will replace Greenberg on an interim basis.

NEW YORK - New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who shook up investment banks and mutual funds with investigations into stock research and trading, is examining possible conflicts of interest at insurance brokerages. Marsh & McLennan Cos., Aon Corp. and Willis Group Holdings Ltd., the world's biggest insurance brokerages, said yesterday that they have received subpoenas concerning their practice of accepting payments from both sides of an insurance transaction. Some brokers are receiving similar requests, Aon said.

In the Region Norway lawmakers threaten to pull out from fighter program Norwegian lawmakers threatened yesterday to pull out of the U.S.-led development of a new jet fighter unless American companies make good on promises of defense contracts for Norway. In June 2002, Norway joined the U.S.-led consortium of other NATO countries to develop the new $200 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. In return for its $143 million contribution over 10 years, Norwegian defense companies were supposed to get contracts from the Pentagon and the aircraft's prime developer, Lockheed Martin Corp.

George Paul Cox, founder and president of Atlantic Agency Ltd., a Baltimore insurance brokerage, died of respiratory failure July 25 at Glen Meadows Retirement Community in Glen Arm. He was 99. Mr. Cox, whose career in the insurance industry spanned 70 years, established the business in 1980. He remained president and active in the business until his death. The former Mays Chapel resident was born and raised in Medford, Mass., where he graduated from high school. He began his career in the insurance industry in 1931, when he joined Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in Massachusetts.

The chairman and chief executive of Alexander & Alexander Services Inc. announced his retirement yesterday, taking the fall for a prolonged earnings slump at the New York-based insurance brokerage company, which has its operations headquarters in Owings Mills.Tinsley H. Irvin, 60, said he will step down immediately as chairman but will stay on as chief executive while the company seeks a replacement.In a statement, the company said Mr. Irvin had agreed to step down because "in order to . . . effect improvements in operations and earnings, significant changes in leadership of the company are necessary."

Vivian Heller Yarnell, 93, legal secretary, volunteer Vivian Heller Yarnell, a legal secretary at Baltimore law firms and city volunteer who served on Mayor William Donald Schaefer's Special Projects Committee, died Friday at Oakcrest Village retirement community in Parkville. She was 93. Mrs. Yarnell was a secretary at the law firms Piper Carey and Hall, and Ritchie Janney Ober and Williams, and had been personal secretary to W. Howard Hamilton, vice president and attorney for the old Calvert Bank downtown.

In the Region InfoVista to move headquarters from Columbia to N.Y. InfoVista SA is moving its U.S. headquarters from Columbia to New York, where it already has located its North American operations, finance and human resources functions, and its Northeastern sales staff. The French software company wouldn't say how many jobs will be lost in Columbia, but officials said some of their technical support and customer service employees will remain at the office on Little Patuxent Parkway.