HAMILTON, Bermuda, /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - XL Capital Ltd announced yesterday that David P. Shea has taken up the post of chief financial & administrative officer of the company's financial products and services business segment.

Mr. Shea, the former chief financial officer and treasurer at General Electric's New York-based Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC), will oversee a broad range of responsibilities for the Financial Products and Services segment, including financial and administrative operations, financial reporting and analysis and participation in strategic planning. Prior to serving as the CFO of FGIC, Mr. Shea held various senior management positions during his 17-year career at General Electric, including senior vice president of GE Real Estate's Global E-Business Group, CFO of GE Real Estate's Capital Markets Group, manager of financial operations for NBC and vice president at Kidder Peabody. Before joining General Electric in 1986, Mr. Shea worked at Salomon Brothers, Inc. and Goldman Sachs.

Robert R. Lusardi, chief executive of XL Financial, said: "We are very pleased to have David join our team. His depth of knowledge and experience in a variety of financial services will be of great help to XL as the size and scope of our specialised financial activities continue to increase. XL has business units operating in several distinct financial markets, including AAA- rated financial guarantee insurance and reinsurance as well as institutional life, investment management, and weather and energy risk management protection. We wanted to hire an individual who had a financial background in this diverse, and relatively unique, set of businesses. At the start of this process I thought this would be a very tall order to fill. We are fortunate to have found that individual and I look forward to working closely with David."