NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The ACE Group today announced that Jeffery Hager has been appointed Regional President, ACE Far East, responsible for ACE’s property and casualty (P&C) and accident and health (A&H) insurance businesses in Japan. Mr. Hager will be based in Tokyo and will report to John Keogh, Vice Chairman, ACE Limited, and Chairman, Insurance – Overseas General. He succeeds Neil Smith, who now heads ACE’s P&C and A&H insurance businesses in Thailand.

Mr. Hager joins ACE from Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, where he was the company’s National Sales Leader since 2009, based in Dallas. Prior to this position, he served as Executive Vice President in charge of AIU’s P&C and A&H insurance company in Japan.

“I am pleased to welcome Jeff to ACE,” said Mr. Keogh. “Jeff has an extensive and varied insurance background, ranging from country management responsibility in Asia to management of an agency sales force in Japan to marketing and front-line claims experience. I’m confident that his unique combination of experience and proven leadership of the P&C and A&H businesses in Japan will serve him well in guiding ACE’s continued success in the Japanese market.”

Mr. Hager brings 20 years of insurance industry experience to his new assignment. Prior to his role as head of AIU Japan, he served as Regional Vice President and then Executive Vice President of the Sales and Distribution division of AIU’s Japan and Korea P&C businesses from 2005 to 2008. Previously, he held a variety of increasingly responsible positions in sales, distribution, marketing and claims over 14 years and in multiple U.S. locations, including Regional Sales & Distribution Leader for nine states and 7,000 independent agents in the central U.S. from 2002 to 2004. Mr. Hager began his insurance career in 1991 as Claims Adjuster at Safeco in Denver.

Mr. Hager earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Kansas State University.

Celebrating 25 years of insuring progress, the ACE Group is a global leader in insurance and reinsurance serving a diverse group of clients. Headed by ACE Limited (NYSE:ACE), a component of the S&P 500 stock index, the ACE Group conducts its business on a worldwide basis with operating subsidiaries in more than 50 countries and commercial and individual customers in more than 170 countries. Additional information can be found at: www.acegroup.com.