Mary E. Bates has joined AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company,New York, to lead Underwriting for its life insurance wholesalechannel headquartered in Farmington, CT. Subject to Board approvalin May, Ms. Bates will become Vice President, Underwriting of AXAEquitable. The announcement was made May 9, by Jamie Shepherdson,Executive Vice President and head of the company's life and annuitywholesale distribution organization.

Ms. Bates, who reports to Tim Herr, Senior Vice President, LifeWholesale Operations, has overall responsibility for lifeunderwriting policy and individual life risk selection for thewholesale life channel. AXA Equitable proprietary life insuranceproducts are marketed on a wholesale basis primarily to brokeragegeneral agents (BGAs), broker/dealers and independent financialplanner producer groups. These products include Athena UniversalLife and Athena Survivorship Life, Incentive Life (IL) Series,including IL Legacy and IL Survivorship and the AXA Equitable LevelTerm Series.

Ms. Bates joins AXA Equitable from MassMutual, where she wasExecutive Director of Life Risk Management. In this role, she wasresponsible for setting policy, procedures, and requirements forlife products. She was also instrumental in growing the BGA marketfor MassMutual. Prior to MassMutual, Mary was Vice President andChief Underwriter for ING, Security Connecticut Life InsuranceCompany. "Mary has a rich background in the BGA community and iswidely recognized for her underwriting knowledge and large-caseexpertise," said Mr. Herr. "Her outstanding reputation fordeveloping collaborative relationships between sales andunderwriting supports AXA Equitable's continued growth in thewholesale market."

AXA Equitable's total life sales through the wholesale channelwere up 70% for 2006, resulting in improved market share of 4.5%and a national rank of #9 (Source: LIMRA International). "Superiorunderwriting talent is critical for outperforming in this channel,"said Mr. Shepherdson.

A member of the Association of Home Office Underwriters and theRisk Appraisal Forum, Ms. Bates holds a B.S. in businessadministration from Western New England College.