Illinois-based professional Paul Liska has held such roles as vice president of financial planning for Kraft General Foods, president of Specialty Foods Corporation, and chief financial officer (CFO) of The St. Paul. In recognition of his success at The St. Paul, Paul Liska received the 2000 CFO Excellence Award from CFO Magazine. This award was in the cost optimization category.
This award was given to the CFO and executive vice president of the property and casualty insurance company because of his ability to implement numerous cost-savings strategies at the business during his tenure. He accomplished this through a series of reorganizations and reductions that reduced St. Paul’s annual spending by about $500 million. Such changes poised the company for the competitive nature of the insurance industry, and ensured that it remained flexible.
The bulk of such note-worthy changes occurred during St Paul’s merger with USF&G Corp., another specialty insurance company. Mergers between two insurance companies historically lost money, but St. Paul was determined to not be part of this statistic. Rather, St. Paul and USF&G completed two negotiation rounds ahead of the merger that cut about $200 million in annual costs. Meanwhile, St. Paul centralized certain tasks to reduce regional offices from 13 to four, grouped together staff and promoted best practices, and incorporated new technology.
