AXA Announces Christopher 'Kip' Condron Retirement

PARIS, Dec. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AXA announced today that Christopher 'Kip' Condron (63), President and CEO of AXA Financial, in charge of AXA Global Life & Savings and Health business line and member of the Management Committee of the AXA Group, has decided to retire effective January 1, 2011.

In commenting on his decision, Kip Condron noted "It has been a great pleasure and honour to work with AXA Financial teams during the past decade, and with Life & Savings teams across the Group during the last year. Though I have decided to move on, I will not forget what we have accomplished during my tenure. I am proud that we protected the long term interests of our clients during very challenging economic times and now have AXA poised to reach the next stage of its ambition."

Jacques de Vaucleroy (49) will assume the responsibility of managing AXA Global Life & Savings and Health business line. He remains CEO of the Northern, Central and Eastern Europe Region and a member of the AXA Group Management Committee.

Mark Pearson (52) will be appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of AXA Financial, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company. He will also join the AXA Group Management Committee. He has been CEO of AXA Japan and a member of the AXA Group Executive Committee since 2008.

Andrew McMahon (43), currently Senior Executive Vice President of AXA Equitable and President of its Financial Protection and Wealth Management business, will be appointed President of AXA Equitable.

Jean-Louis Laurent Josi (41) will be appointed Chief Executive Officer of AXA Japan and will join the AXA Group Executive Committee. He has been CEO of AXA Gulf since 2008.

Emmanuel de Talhouet (49), currently CEO of AXA Belgium, will join the AXA Group Executive Committee.

"On behalf of AXA's Board of Directors and Management Committee, I would like to very warmly thank Kip for his contribution to the Group, most notably in his role at the helm of our US operations," said Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of AXA.

"Among the many challenges he has vigorously embraced over the decade, Kip was notably instrumental to the successful acquisition and integration of MONY, to the development of a culture of innovation across the Group and the set up of our global business lines. On a personal note, I would like to thank Kip for his advice and friendship and wish him all the best in his future endeavours!

"Going forward, I am convinced that Jacques, Mark, Andrew, Jean-Louis and Emmanuel will take up their new responsibilities with enthusiasm and professionalism. They have demonstrated great leadership skills on top of their recognized expertise in managing insurance operations and I know their new teams will look forward to working with them to achieve our ambitions. These appointments are a sign of the quality and depth of AXA's management capabilities and of the maturity of our succession planning process."

Certain of the foregoing appointments are subject to prior review and/or approval by regulatory authorities.

Biographies

Jacques de Vaucleroy joined the AXA Group in 2010, when he was appointed CEO for the Northern, Central and Eastern Europe business unit. He is also in charge of AXA Bank Europe and is a member of the Management Committee of AXA. Before joining AXA, he made most of his career within the ING Group, where he was notably a member of the Executive Committee. He has developed over the years an extensive experience of the life insurance, asset management and banking businesses, both in Europe and in the US. Jacques de Vaucleroy has a bachelor degree in law from the Universite Catholique de Louvain and a master's degree in business law from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Mark Pearson joined the AXA Group in 1995 with the acquisition of National Mutual (now AXA Asia Pacific Holdings) and was appointed Regional Chief Executive of AXA Asia Life in 2001. In 2008, he became President and CEO of AXA Japan and was appointed a member of the Executive Committee of AXA. Before joining AXA, Mark Pearson had spent about 20 years in the insurance sector, assuming several senior manager positions at National Mutual and Friends Provident. Mark Pearson is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

Andrew J. McMahon joined the AXA Group in March 2005 as senior vice president of AXA Equitable. He was appointed senior executive vice president for AXA Equitable and president of its Financial Protection and Wealth Management business in 2010. Before joining AXA Equitable, he was a principal at McKinsey & Co. and served as a life insurance practice leader in North America. Prior to McKinsey, he spent several years in management positions with various business divisions of General Electric. Andrew McMahon earned a B.S. from Fairfield University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Jean-Louis Laurent Josi joined the AXA Group with Winterthur's integration in 2006 to manage as a member of the Executive Committee AXA Belgium's multidistribution activity. He was previously managing director and COO of a Belgian bank, before being in charge of Life Underwriting, and then Retail & SME for Winterthur-Europe Assurances. In 2008 he was appointed CEO of AXA Gulf & Middle East. Jean-Louis Laurent Josi holds a postgraduate degree in actuarial sciences from the Universite Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and a MBA from the College of Insurance in New York.

Emmanuel de Talhouet joined the AXA Group in 2001 as strategic auditor, one year before being appointed CEO of AXA France's AXA Particuliers / Professionnels for the North-East region. In 2008, he was appointed BSD director (Business, Support & Development) for AXA's Northern, Central and Eastern Europe business unit. He was appointed CEO of AXA Belgium in 2010. He had previously worked in the consulting and public works areas, assuming several senior manager positions. Emmanuel de Talhouet is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique.

About AXA

AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 216,000 employees serving 96 million clients in 57 countries. For 1H10, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 49.9 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 2.1 billion.

AXA had Euro 1,089 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2010.

The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISN FR 0000120628 – Bloomberg: CS FP – Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA's American Depository Shares are also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.

The Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD.

This press release is available on the AXA Group website: www.axa.com.

IMPORTANT LEGAL INFORMATION AND CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements contained herein are forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the section "Cautionary statements" in page 2 of AXA's Document de Reference for the year ended December 31, 2009, for a description of certain important factors, risks and uncertainties that may affect AXA's business. AXA undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise.

SOURCE AXA

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