NU Online News Service, June 15, 3:07 p.m.EST

When David H. Long first sat down at his desk at Liberty Mutualto work as a financial analyst, he thought it was a good job tokeep him busy for a few years before heading to graduateschool.

More than 25 years later, Long has been named the company's chief executive officer,succeeding the retiring Edmund “Ted” Kelly.

“It wasn't that I was that ambitious,” he modestly tells NUOnline News Service of his career accomplishments at LibertyMutual. “The company kept presenting me with challenge afterchallenge—opportunity after opportunity.”

Long also jokes that to get ahead at Liberty Mutual, one need tohave an accent. Out goes the Irish accent of Kelly, and in comesthe English accent of Long, originally from Liverpool.

Now as Liberty Mutual Group's CEO and president, a role he tookabout a year ago, there isn't a part of the company Long doesn'thave experience in. Long has been president of commercial marketsand Liberty International, and he was one of the founders ofLiberty Mutual Agency Corp. (As an aside, Long did earn a master'sdegree in finance from Boston College four years after starting atLiberty Mutual in 1985.)

To anyone who may think that Liberty Mutual will sit on itshands once Long takes over, the new top executive says, “That isn'tgoing to happen.”

He adds, “I like the path we're on.”

Long calls mergers and acquisitions a “core competency aroundhere” and the company's ever-present desire to seek out the nextopportunity in the United States and abroad “isn't going tostop.”

Liberty Mutual's plan to tap the middle class in emergingmarkets isn't going to stop either, he adds.

“If you can afford to buy a car, we want to be there to insureit,” Long says.

Internationally, Liberty Mutual is looking at Russia, Indonesiaand is “nibbling” at Africa for growth opportunities, Long says.The company is also looking at the effect new solvency rules haveon companies overseas. It may be that the new rules overburden somecompanies, allowing Liberty Mutual to step in and help withcapitalization, as it recently did in Ireland.

With business moves, the company's status as a mutual allows itto be “slightly more patient, compared to the competition,” Longsays. Therefore, it can acquire distressed companies in Ireland orVenezuela, or get into markets as it has in places like China,Vietnam and Poland.

Liberty Mutual may not currently be turning a profit on all ofthese ventures, but the company believes it is “building value,”Long says.

The acquisition of Safeco—one of Kelly's biggestaccomplishments—is now showing growth. The move was a “home run,”Long says. “Their book of business is more profitable than wethought.”

The company last year looked to enter the equity markets with astock offering of Liberty Mutual Agency Corp. but backed offbecause, as Long puts it, “the market doesn't like insurance stocksright now.” Long says LMAC is like a convertible in a garage.

“If the sun shines, we can come out and drive it around,” hesays.

The soon-to-be top executive at Liberty Mutual seems to look atrecent catastrophes as an opportunity, a way for the company to“demonstrate why we're here.”

And it certainly does not look as if catastrophes in the U.S. oroverseas will curb Liberty Mutual's appetite. Long says he wouldn'texpect anything to happen anywhere in the world that Liberty Mutual“doesn't have a piece of at this point.”

If that were the case, “We want to know why,” Long adds.