Aflac Incorporated Hires Issei Sasaki as Senior Vice President; Chief Investment Officer of Aflac Japan

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Aug 07, 2012, 08:41 ET

COLUMBUS, Ga., Aug. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac Incorporated announced today that it has hired Issei Sasaki to the newly created position of senior vice president; chief investment officer of Aflac Japan. In this capacity, Sasaki will report to Aflac Japan President; Chief Operating Officer Tohru Tonoike and globally to Executive Vice President; Global Chief Investment Officer Eric M. Kirsch. Based out of the Tokyo office, Sasaki will join Aflac on August 20, 2012, and become a member of Aflac Japan's executive committee.

Sasaki brings nearly three decades of experience to Aflac Japan building investment teams, formulating investment strategy, hiring external managers, and developing portfolio and risk management systems/ operations to manage both insurance company general account assets and third-party investor funds. Most recently, he served as senior vice president; chief investment officer of MassMutual Life Insurance Company, Ltd. in the company's Tokyo office. There, he was responsible for setting investment objectives, asset allocation and ALM for an investment portfolio of 1.5 trillion yen while managing a staff of 35 investment professionals in the Investment Strategy, Credit Investments, and Investment Operations Departments. Prior to joining MassMutual, Sasaki served as chief portfolio manager at Nissay Asset Management Company's Tokyo office, where he managed credit investments for both mutual and pension funds, coordinated relationships with pension fund clients, and developed the first collateralized debt obligation (CDO) fund for the company. Prior to this, he held positions in Nippon Life Insurance Company's Treasury & Capital Markets Department, as well as important roles at Tokai International Securities Company, Ltd., Merrill Lynch Japan, Inc., and Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corporation. Sasaki received his bachelor of arts degree from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Aflac Japan President; Chief Operating Officer Tohru Tonoike commented, "I am pleased to welcome someone with Sasaki-san's well-established and versatile investment skill set to our organization. I expect his international experience to enhance Aflac Japan's investment management activities and our ability to drive value and protect policyholders."

Executive Vice President; Global Chief Investment Officer Eric M. Kirsch added, "We are delighted to have Sasaki-san join Aflac as a key member of our investment senior management team. I have no doubt that his experience and investment acumen will enhance the depth of our investment team and that he will be instrumental in helping to make Aflac a world-class investment operation. I look forward to his contributions to Aflac's global investment function."

ABOUT AFLAC

When a policyholder gets sick or hurt, Aflac pays cash benefits fast. For more than 55 years, Aflac insurance policies have given policyholders the opportunity to focus on recovery, not financial stress. In the United States, Aflac is the number one provider of guaranteed-renewable insurance. In Japan, Aflac is the number one life insurance company in terms of individual policies in force. Aflac individual and group insurance products provide protection to more than 50 million people worldwide. 2012 marked the sixth consecutive year Aflac has been recognized by Ethisphere magazine as a World's Most Ethical Company. 2012 also marked the 14th year FORTUNE magazine recognized Aflac as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For and the 11th time FORTUNE included Aflac on its list of Most Admired Companies. Aflac Incorporated is a FORTUNE 500 company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AFL. To find out more about Aflac, visit aflac.com or espanol.aflac.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" to encourage companies to provide prospective information, so long as those informational statements are identified as forward-looking and are accompanied by meaningful cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements. We desire to take advantage of these provisions. This document contains cautionary statements identifying important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected herein, and in any other statements made by company officials in communications with the financial community and contained in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Forward-looking statements are not based on historical information and relate to future operations, strategies, financial results or other developments. Furthermore, forward-looking information is subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties. In particular, statements containing words such as "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "goal," "objective," "may," "should," "estimate," "intends," "projects," "will," "assumes," "potential," "target" or similar words as well as specific projections of future results, generally qualify as forward-looking. Aflac undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements. We caution readers that the following factors, in addition to other factors mentioned from time to time, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements: difficult conditions in global capital markets and the economy; governmental actions for the purpose of stabilizing the financial markets; defaults and credit downgrades of securities in our investment portfolio; impairment of financial institutions; credit and other risks associated with Aflac's investment in perpetual securities; differing judgments applied to investment valuations; significant valuation judgments in determination of amount of impairments taken on our investments; limited availability of acceptable yen-denominated investments; concentration of our investments in any particular single-issuer or sector; concentration of business in Japan; ongoing changes in our industry; exposure to significant financial and capital markets risk; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates significant changes in investment yield rates; deviations in actual experience from pricing and reserving assumptions; subsidiaries' ability to pay dividends to Aflac Incorporated; changes in law or regulation by governmental authorities; ability to attract and retain qualified sales associates and employees; decreases in our financial strength or debt ratings; ability to continue to develop and implement improvements in information technology systems; changes in U.S. and/or Japanese accounting standards; failure to comply with restrictions on patient privacy and information security; level and outcome of litigation; ability to effectively manage key executive succession; impact of the recent earthquake and tsunami natural disaster and related events at the nuclear plant in Japan and their aftermath; catastrophic events including, but not necessarily limited to, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and damage incidental to such events; and failure of internal controls or corporate governance policies and procedures.