Andries Willemse Appointed Vice President, GTS, for Crawford & Company

ATLANTA, June 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Crawford & Company (NYSE: CRDA; CRDB), the world's largest independent provider of claims management services, has named Andries G. Willemse vice president of Global Technical Services (GTS). In his new role, Willemse will help develop and implement strategic plans for the worldwide group and further grow the market-leading service.

"As part of our global planning group, Andries has been working with GTS on strategy and project management for quite some time and is a valued member of the GTS team," said Michael F. Reeves, executive vice president, Global Markets, to whom Willemse will report. "We will now be able to make greater use of his extensive insurance industry knowledge, strategic planning capabilities, management experience and familiarity with GTS to help us continue to expand this critical business segment, which is a major differentiator for Crawford worldwide."

With more than 500 experienced senior adjusters and industry specialists, GTS offers major incident claims handling for complex, high-value property and casualty claims in a wide variety of industries worldwide.

After 15 years as an accountant and management consultant, Willemse joined Crawford & Company in 1998 as a senior adjuster in South Africa, where he handled property, fidelity guarantee, business interruption and rail transportation claims, including international assignments. In 2004, he was promoted to the position of managing director of operations in sub-Saharan Africa, where he implemented various leadership development and change management programs and managed strategic planning and business development activities.

In 2007, Willemse became vice president of quality and compliance for Crawford's global property and casualty business. In that role, he managed regulatory compliance, quality and training and development programs. In 2008, he was appointed vice president, global strategy, projects and development, leading a wide variety of corporate, U.S. Property & Casualty and GTS planning efforts and projects.

Willemse is a member of Crawford's GTS Council and the GTS Executive Council, two groups of global leaders who develop strategic plans and coordinate operations for the service, and will continue those involvements in his new role. Other current reporting relationships and operational roles in GTS remain unchanged.

A certified accountant with a number of professional examinations completed, Willemse holds both master's and doctoral degrees in business administration from the Business School Netherlands, Buren, Netherlands. His post-graduate work focused on strategic planning issues in the knowledge worker environment.

About Crawford

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Crawford & Company (www.crawfordandcompany.com) is the world's largest independent provider of claims management solutions to the risk management and insurance industry as well as self-insured entities, with a global network of more than 700 locations in 63 countries. The Crawford System of Claims Solutions(SM) offers comprehensive, integrated claims services, business process outsourcing and consulting services for major product lines including property and casualty claims management, workers compensation claims and medical management, and legal settlement administration. The Company's shares are traded on the NYSE under the symbols CRDA and CRDB.

SOURCE Crawford & Company