Steven Gluckstern, chairman of Centre Reinsurance Companies and Zurich Centre Holdings, has been named to Zurich Group's corporate executive board, the company said.

Effective immediately, Mr. Gluckstern joins the corporate executive board and assumes responsibility for group-wide reinsurance activities including finite risk and structured financial solutions.

All Zurich reinsurance entities now report directly to Mr. Gluckstern.

The move is part of the Zurich Group's realignment of reinsurance and financial risk management responsibilities at the corporate executive board level.

Mr. Gluckstern is also responsible for Zurich's capital market businesses including the Zurich Capital Markets organisation.

In addition, he heads up the group's venture capital investing activities.

He will be based in Zurich and New York.

Mr. Gluckstern joined the Zurich group in 1988 as co-founder of Centre Re.

Over the past years he has successfully headed the Zurich group's reinsurance activities in North America through the Centre Reinsurance Companies and Zurich Reinsurance Centre, Inc., listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ZRC.

"Under Mr. Gluckstern's leadership, Zurich has gained an important market position in the North American reinsurance business and particularly in the area of finite risk solutions,'' Zurich group said.

Zurich group also announced that the responsibilities of Detlef Steiner and William Bolinder have been changed.

Mr. Steiner, formerly responsible for reinsurance and alternative risk financing, assumes responsibility for the newly created Corporate Customers Division.

The new division includes Zurich Global Specialties, Zurich International and Risk Engineering. It seeks to provide corporate customers with new risk management solutions and to build on the total risk approach developed in Zurich's reinsurance operations in North America and Europe.

Mr. Bolinder will concentrate on the development of Zurich's market presence in North and Latin America which has seen significant expansion recently, particularly though acquisition of US-based Kemper Corporation in 1996.

The Zurich group is a leading, internationally recognised provider of financial services in property/casualty and life insurance, reinsurance and asset management.

Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the group operates in 48 countries. In 1995, Zurich wrote $23 billion in premium income and at December 31, 1995 had $74.8 billion in investments and $9.1 billion in capital and surplus.

Steven Gluckstern BUSINESS BUC