Allstate's Lower to Replace Retiring Kardos at Horace Mann

Springfield, IL-based Horace Mann Educators Corp. says that Paul. Kardos will retire as president and chief executive officer effective February 1. He'll be succeeded as by Louis Lower, II, who most recently served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Allstate Life Insurance Company.

Kardos, 62, will stay on as chairman of the board until a new chairman is elected at the annual meeting of shareholders in May 2000.

Kardos joined Horace Mann in 1977 and became president and CE) in 1982. Prior to joining Horace Mann he worked for what was then the Insurance Company of North America (INA), where he began his insurance career in 1962. INA owned Horace Mann until the early 1980s.

``I have truly enjoyed my 23 years at Horace Mann, and I'm very proud of what the Horace Mann family has been able to accomplish," Kardos said. "Now, though, it's time for a new leader to guide the company in the new millennium. The board, with my strong support, has been looking at the issue of choosing my successor. The selection of Lou Lower was a unanimous decision of the board, and I will do all I can to assist him during the upcoming transition.''

Lower, 54, will also become a member of Horace Mann's board of directors next month. Lower joined Allstate in 1976 and became CEO of its life insurance operations in 1990. He is a 1967 graduate of Yale University and received his MBA from Harvard University in 1970.

Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Springfield, Ill., Horace Mann sells retirement annuities and automobile, homeowners and life insurance to the nation's educators through an exclusive sales force of more than 1,000 agents.