Kemper Promotes Real Estate Exec To President of Mutual Fund Unit

Kemper Corp. has promoted John E. Neal to president and chief operating officer of its asset management subsidiary, Kemper Financial Services Inc.

Before joining the Chicago-based financial services company in 1992, Mr. Neal was an executive vice president of Continental Bank Corp.'s real estate group. Continental was acquired by BankAmerica Corp. last year.

In his new post, Mr. Neal will be in charge of day-to-day operations in Kemper's asset management business.

That post entails overseeing Kemper's mutual funds, which have $41.5 billion of assets, as well as $5 billion in institutional assets.

Mr. Neal reports to Charles M. Kierscht, who previously was president and chief operating officer. Mr. Kierscht now is chairman and chief executive of Kemper Financial Services.

The financial services subsidiary has more than $60 billion of assets under management.

Before being promoted, Mr. Neal was a senior vice president of Kemper Corp. and head of the company's real estate group.

He is a newcomer to the asset management arena. His previous experience has "primarily been in real estate," a spokesman for the company said.

Mr. Neal's responsibilities in the real estate group have been taken over by Frederick Stephens.