Travelers Creates Public Policy Institute

NU Online News Service, May 28, 3:26 p.m. EDT

The Travelers Companies Inc. said it has established a think tank, The Travelers Institute, to participate in public policy debates on matters of interest to the property-casualty insurance sector as well as the financial services industry.

Travelers said the institute will draw upon the industry expertise of the company's senior management and the technical expertise of its risk professionals and other experts to provide information, analysis and recommendations to public policy makers and regulators.

"Travelers is committed to being a constructive participant in the public policy dialogue with regard to important issues facing our industry," said Jay S. Fishman, chairman and chief executive officer of Travelers in a statement.

Mr. Fishman said the company hopes to "contribute to solutions on a wide range of issues that face our customers, our agents and brokers, and the communities we serve."

Based in Washington, D.C., the institute will be led by Joan Woodward, who joined Travelers in 2008 as executive vice president of public policy.

Ms. Woodward previously served for a dozen years on Capitol Hill on both the House Budget and Senate Finance Committee staffs before joining Goldman Sachs where she was the founding executive director of The Global Markets Institute.

The Travelers Institute said it has convened a separate advisory board comprising distinguished public policy and industry experts, whose perspectives will assist in framing and guiding the work of the institute.

Inaugural members of the board are:

o Richard I. Beattie, chairman of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a global law firm. Mr. Beattie was a special presidential emissary to Cyprus under the Clinton administration and was general counsel for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the Carter administration.

o Leslie Disharoon, former chairman, president and CEO of Monumental Corp. He is a director of AT&T Government Solutions Inc., Aegon USA Inc. and MSD&T Funds Inc., and a former director of The Travelers Companies.

o Richard Herring is Jacob Safra Professor of International Banking and professor of finance at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

o Alice Rivlin is the former vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board; founding director of the Congressional Budget Office and former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. She now serves as a visiting professor at the public policy institute of Georgetown University.