IFNY Honors Kandarian, Nigro: 275 Gather at New York's Historic Union League Club to Honor MetLife Leader and NYC's Fire Commissioner.

* More than 250 insurance leaders joined in the Insurance Federation of New York's (IFNY) 102nd Annual Award Luncheon honoring Steven A. Kandarian, Chairman, President and CEO, MetLife, Inc., as he received the Federation's 2016 Free Enterprise Award. New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro was presented with IFNY's inaugural Public Service Award. New York Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services, the Hon. Maria T. Vullo, addressed the insurance, reinsurance and financial services leaders present for the event, long considered one of New York's premier industry gatherings.

During the ceremonies, held at the Union League Club in Manhattan, the Federation renewed its support for the IFNY Summer Intern Program. Working with Boys Hope Girls Hope and Mary Lanning, insurance consultant and head of the charity, Yes!Solutions, IFNY arranges for inner city high school students to visit top corporate offices where they learn the business of insurance and its many segments. Over thirty high-achieving students have already "graduated" from the program.

The Free Enterprise Awards distinguished recipients are business leaders who have advanced their industry, espousing the principles of free enterprise for which IFNY has stood for since 1913. Recent past recipients of this prestigious award include Evan Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of Chubb Group, Robert Benmosche, former President and CEO of AIG, J. Hyatt Brown, Chairman and CEO of Brown & Brown Insurance and Donald Kramer, Chairman of ILS Capital LLC.

In his introduction of Mr. Kandarian, IFNY Board Member Thomas Workman, Immediate past president of LICONY, noted that Mr. Kandarian's direction contributed to MetLife's global expansion and led to significant cost savings. Mr. Workman underlined the fact that Mr. Kandarian enhanced his company's focus on effective risk management and diversified MetLife's investment portfolio, in part through the $5.4 billion sale of Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town in 2006. "Under Mr. Kandarian's leadership, MetLife identified the housing bubble early and reduced its exposure to sub-prime mortgage-backed securities, raised the overall quality of its corporate credit portfolio, and increased its focus on low loan-to-value commercial and agricultural mortgages. His efforts helped MetLife emerge from the 2008 credit crisis with the financial strength to complete the company's $16.4 billion purchase of Alico," he stated. In presenting the award to...

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