CHICAGO and LONDON, December 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC - News) today announced that it has created a new global specialty business unit - Aon Specialty - a strategic move designed to take advantage of the firm's decision earlier this year to pull together Aon's US$5 billion in retail revenue, 26,000 colleagues and US$54 billion in annual premium throughput into one global team designed to best serve clients.

"Aon Specialty builds on the momentum of our Benfield acquisition," said Greg Case, president and chief executive officer of Aon Corporation. "This business unit will leverage the strong specialty talent within Aon with the strong talent within the former Benfield Corporate Risk division to bring unmatched global solutions to our construction, energy, marine, space and aviation clients."

Grahame Chilton, formerly chief executive officer of Benfield Group, will serve as chairman of Aon Specialty, working closely with Peter Harmer, chief executive officer of Aon's UK operations, and Michael R. Moran, the newly appointed chief operating officer of the group. Additionally, the new Specialty business will operate with a Board of Directors made up of some of Aon's most senior brokerage professionals and will work directly with the Global Aon Risk Services (ARS) Executive Committee made up of Aon leaders from around the globe.

"We have made tremendous progress in pulling our Global Retail assets together to serve clients around the world in the most coordinated fashion," said Steve McGill, chairman and chief executive officer of ARS. "The announcement of Aon Specialty is the next logical strategic move."

"Aon Specialty is all about bringing the best specialty brokerage solutions in the world to some of the fastest growing areas of the global economy, including energy and construction," added Ted Devine, president of ARS. "The addition of a very talented team from Benfield Corporate Risk demonstrates our commitment to making Aon Specialty the finest specialty brokering operation in the industry."

"I am very excited about working with Greg, Steve and Ted to build the Global Specialty businesses. The alignment of the significant talent from Aon and Benfield create an unmatched opportunity for the Group," said Grahame Chilton.

About Aon

Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC - News) is the leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting. Through its 36,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon readily delivers distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Our industry-leading global resources, technical expertise and industry knowledge are delivered locally through more than 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Aon was named the world's best broker by Euromoney magazine's 2008 Insurance Survey. In 2008, Aon ranked highest on the Business Insurance ranking of the world's largest insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues. Aon also was ranked by A.M. Best as the number one insurance broker based on brokerage revenues in 2007 and 2008, and was voted best insurance intermediary, best reinsurance intermediary, and best employee benefits consulting firm in 2007 and 2008 by the readers of Business Insurance. For more information on Aon. Log onto http://www.aon.com

Source: Aon Corporation

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