Jim Pedrick, Formerly of Charles Schwab, Joins ING Americas As Senior Vice President of Marketing for ING's U.S. Retail Operation

PRNewswire
ATLANTA
Jul 10, 2001

ING Americas, the North and South America headquarters for Amsterdam-based ING Group (NYSE: ING), today announced that it has named Jim Pedrick as senior vice president, Marketing, for its U.S. Retail Financial Services (USRFS) operation. USRFS markets ING's wide range of life insurance, annuities, mutual funds and other investment products and services. The organization uses independent financial planners as its primary distribution channel to reach individual customers.

Pedrick joins ING Americas from Charles Schwab where he spent five years as head of Strategic Marketing. Pedrick's primary responsibilities are to develop and execute strategic initiatives to help ING establish a leadership position as a customer-focused organization. The initiatives he will participate in include market analysis, customer relationship management, product positioning and web strategy.

"We are very fortunate to have someone like Jim with a proven track record of building a marketing program that draws a company closer to its customers," said Robert C. Salipante, general manager and CEO, USRFS. "ING is on a mission to build the industry's first, highly functional, customer-focused business model that integrates all aspects of financial services, including distribution through independent financial advisors. Marketing is a key function within that model and Jim is just the right person to lead these efforts."

Prior to his years at Schwab, he spent 13 years as a marketing consultant to numerous Fortune 500 companies. Pedrick has served on the faculty of the University of Southern California Graduate School of Business. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, and MS and BS degrees in Statistics from California Polytechnic University.

ING Americas is comprised of integrated financial services operations in North America and South America with business operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, the Netherlands Antilles, as well as reinsurance operations in Bermuda, and Ireland. ING Americas offers a comprehensive array of products and services, including life, health and property & casualty insurance; fixed and variable annuities; reinsurance; guaranteed investment contracts and other institutional investment advisory services; defined contribution plans; and mutual funds. To date, ING Americas and its affiliates have $163 billion in assets under management. ING Americas' parent company, Amsterdam-based ING Group, is one of the largest integrated financial services organizations in the world with $453 billion of assets under management.

Contact: Dana E. Ripley of ING Americas, 770-980-3317,

or cellular, 404-202-6679

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SOURCE: ING Americas

Contact: Dana E. Ripley of ING Americas, 770-980-3317, or cellular,
404-202-6679

Website: http://www.ing-usa.com/