W. R. Berkley Corporation Names Brian R. Griffith President of Berkley Aspire

GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--W. R. Berkley Corporation (NYSE: WRB) today announced the appointment of Brian R. Griffith as president of Berkley Aspire, a Berkley Company. The appointment is effective immediately. He succeeds Miklos F. Kallo, who will continue to support Mr. Griffith and the Berkley Aspire team throughout the transition and take on certain responsibilities at the corporate level.

Mr. Griffith joins Berkley Aspire with nearly 30 years of experience in the property casualty insurance industry and has a strong record of accomplishment in driving profitable growth through customer/agency segmentation, process improvements and effective leadership. He has led regional underwriting divisions for major property and casualty insurance carriers as well as countrywide distribution and field operations. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Connecticut.

Mr. Kallo joined Berkley in 1999 as chief financial officer of Preferred Employers Insurance, became chief financial officer of Nautilus Insurance Group in 2008, and was named president of Berkley Aspire in 2017. Having filled key leadership roles at each of these operating units, he has been instrumental in advancing their profitable expansion throughout the insurance market cycle.

Commenting on the appointments, W. Robert Berkley, Jr., president and chief executive officer of W. R. Berkley Corporation, said, “We welcome Brian to Berkley, confident that he will be an excellent complement to our team at Berkley Aspire and the enterprise as a whole. His broad skill set will further enhance the success of Berkley Aspire. In addition, we thank Mick for his tremendous contributions to our organization over the past two decades. With his extensive knowledge of the property casualty insurance business and his hands-on experience in managing several of our operating units, Mick will be a great asset to our corporate activities.”

Berkley Aspire provides excess and surplus lines coverage on a national basis to small to medium-sized insureds with low to moderate insurance risk. Their product lines include primary and excess general liability, property and inland marine. Berkley Aspire serves a limited distribution channel consisting of select Berkley member company appointed retail agents. Please visit www.berkleyaspire.com for more information.

Founded in 1967, W. R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company that is among the largest commercial lines writers in the United States and operates worldwide in two segments of the property casualty insurance business: Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. For further information about W. R. Berkley Corporation, please visit www.berkley.com.

Products and services are provided by W. R. Berkley Corporation’s subsidiaries and “operating units”. Operating units are not typically legal entities, but for marketing purposes may sometimes be referred to individually as “a Berkley company” or collectively as “Berkley companies”.