Chubb Limited announced today the passing of Dean O’Hare, former chairman and chief executive officer of The Chubb Corp., who served the company for almost 40 years before retiring in 2002. He was 75.

O’Hare joined The Chubb Corp. as an underwriting trainee in 1963. He worked as a financial analyst and an assistant to Percy Chubb II, a descendent of the company’s founder. O’Hare became chief financial officer in 1981, president in 1986, and chairman and CEO in 1988, a position he held until 2002.

Evan G. Greenberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Chubb, noted that O’Hare’s insurance industry career spanned more than four decades. “He not only led The Chubb Corporation but he made a real contribution to the U.S. business community in the area of international finance and trade, including his service as a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends, as well as to all Chubb employees and industry colleagues with whom he worked.”

After his retirement from the company, O’Hare continued to share his business insights with several companies, including H.J. Heinz Co., AGL Resources, Bolt Solutions and Fluor Corp. He brought his expertise to bear for the causes and organizations about which he cared deeply: as co-chairman of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York; a trustee of St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, N.J.; a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine; a trustee of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum; and a trustee of the University of Dublin.

While Chubb is today a worldwide brand, in a 2008 Insurance Journal interview, Jan Tomlinson recalled that the global focus got serious after O’Hare returned from Rochester, N.Y., where a manufacturer said to him, “I’ve got manufacturing plants in Germany, and I have manufacturing plants in Asia. Why can’t you insure them? I want to be insured by Chubb.”

That’s when Chubb started taking global expansion seriously, according to Tomlinson, who was then Chubb’s international field operations manager.

More than 15 years ago, O’Hare was warning about cyber risk. He told delegates at a conference in Paris that business and government must work together to prevent attacks by terrorists or hackers on the Internet that could seriously damage global commerce and impede economic recovery.

Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, O’Hare called on Congress to form an insurance pool for terrorism coverage similar to the one that was formed in the United Kingdom.

John Finnegan, executive vice president of General Motors Corp. and chairman and president of General Motors Acceptance Corp., succeeded O’Hare as Chubb president and CEO on Dec. 1, 2002.

Source: Chubb

*This story ran previously in our sister publication Insurance Journal.