Chairman Kim Kyu-bok of the Korea Life Insurance Association and Chairman Moon Jae-woo of the Korea Non-Life Insurance Association and CEOs of both life and non-life insurance firms, along with heads of life and non-life insurance academics gathered to launch the 49th International Insurance Society (IIS) Seoul Conference 2013 on April 4 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in southern Seoul.

The IIS Conference, one of the representative gatherings of both life and non-life CEOs in the world, is expected to attract more than 500 top life and non-life authorities, insurance CEOs, executives, academics, and representatives of associations and other related organizations from 50 countries scheduled to be held from June 16-19 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seoul. 

The life and non-life associations informed the status of the preparation for the Seoul meeting and the future plans in consultations with the IIS to the organizing committee and also held discussions on the public relations campaign and support measures to make the IIS Seoul event a great success.

The IIS Seoul gathering is taking place in Seoul for the first time since its 23rd meeting in 1987, 26 years ago, which is a change for the Korean insurance industry, which ranks 8th largest in the world. The meeting is an opportunity to share global trends in the world insurance industry, the organizers said.

Chairman Kim of the life insurance association and Chairman Moon of the non-life insurance association, co-chairmen of the Organizing Committee, are committed to making the Seoul event a great success to enhance the international competitiveness of the Korean insurance industries, boosting its international position and its overseas credit a step up, the organizers said.

The main theme of the meeting will be “The future of insurance: reshaping the industry to capitalize on global trends” with insurance industry leaders from both Korea and overseas as speakers. 

Chairman Shin Je-yoon of the Financial Services Commission and Governor Choi Soo-hyun of the Financial Supervisory Service are slated to speak at the meeting, along with Thomas Leonardi, director of the Insurance Supervisory Office of the State of Connecticut in the U.S.; CEO Robert Benmosche of the AIG Group; CEO Greig Woodring of RGA Group; and CEOs of a number of overseas insurance firms including Japan Life, Manulife, Prudential, Swiss Re, KPMG, Deloitte, and CEOs of Korean insurance firms.

The IIS was launched in 1965 with Professor John Bickley playing a key role in setting up the insurance organization and is located at the St. John’s University building in Manhattan, New York. Korean insurance firms first attended the 12th IIS conference in 1976 and a number of Korean insurance firms became members in 1994 with Samsung Life, Kyobo Life, and Hanwha Life on the life insurance side and Samsung Fire and Korean Re on the non-life insurance side.

The key officers of the IIS include Chairman Norman Sorensen and President and CEO Michael Morrissey, Board Vice Chairman Shin Chang-jae of Kyobo Life in Korea, and chairmen of Korea Life Insurance Association and Korea Non-Life Insurance Association to represent the interest of the Korean insurance firms.

The Organizing Committee is led by the co-chairmen, the representatives of five life and five non-life insurance firms, and the heads of the Korea Insurance Academy and the Insurance Research Institute.

The five life insurers are Samsung, Kyobo, Hanwha, Nonghyup, and Metlife and the non-life insurers are Korean Re, Samsung Fire, Hyundai, LIG, and Dongbu.

The Organizing Committee will take charge of public relations both domestically and abroad for the Seoul IIS Meeting, make decisions on themes and programs, the selection of speakers at the event, preparations for the Seoul event, and consultations on other issues.