X. Rick Niu Appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer for ING's U.S. Insurance Group

ING's U.S. Insurance Group has named X. Rick Niu as executive vice president and chief growth officer. In this newly created role, he will head up growth marketing efforts for the business and report to Catherine Smith, CEO, of ING's U.S. Insurance Group.

"Rick is well regarded in the industry and considered a representative of the new generation of pioneers in financial services marketing. His solid track record of generating profitable sales in the multicultural arena makes him ideally suited to take the reigns and further ING U.S. Insurance's robust sales and marketing goals. His broad leadership and management background, excellent relationships with key industry players, highly successful marketing experience, and consistent demonstration of innovation will undoubtedly help him leverage the ING brand and grow our business even further," says Smith.

"ING has a great reputation and brand in the individual life, employee benefits, and group reinsurance arena," said Niu. "I'm thrilled to be joining a high-quality and forward-thinking organization like ING, which has a very diverse group of talents, a clear approach to distribution, an excellent business infrastructure, and a strong commitment to growth. Together with other leaders and colleagues at ING, we plan to take the U.S. Insurance business to a new level."

Prior to joining ING, Niu spent eight years at American International Group, Inc., (AIG) and held various leadership and management positions in the U.S. and Europe, including strategic initiatives, large-scale acquisitions and post-merger integrations, cross-marketing, multicultural distribution, business turnarounds, new product introductions, marketing alliances, and direct P&L responsibilities. Most recently, he was the head of corporate multicultural marketing and accountable for multicultural growth strategy and execution across AIG's life insurance companies in the U.S. and Canada. Prior to AIG, Niu served as marketing director and management consultant at China International Trust & Investment Corporation in Asia.

Niu earned a bachelor's of science degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and a master's degree in business administration from Columbia Business School. Niu also holds the professional designation of Chartered Life Underwriter. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries. With a diverse workforce of over 120,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.

In the U.S., the ING (NYSE: ING) family of companies offer a comprehensive array of financial services to retail and institutional clients which includes life insurance, retirement plans, mutual funds, managed accounts, alternative investments, direct banking, institutional investment management, annuities, employee benefits, financial planning, and reinsurance. ING holds top-tier rankings in key U.S. markets and serves over 14 million customers across the nation. For more information, visit www.ing.com.

Press inquiries: Chuck Eudy, 770-980-5209, chuck.eudy@us.ing.com

SOURCE: ING U.S. Financial Services

CONTACT: Chuck Eudy of ING U.S. Financial Services, +1-770-980-5209,
chuck.eudy@us.ing.com

Web site: http://www.ing.com/us