NEW YORK, NY, -- Westvaco Corporation (NYSE: W) today announced the election of David F. D'Alessandro to its Board of Directors. Mr. D'Alessandro is President and CEO of John Hancock Financial Services, Inc., one of the largest U.S. life insurers with more than $125 billion in total assets under management through the company or its subsidiaries. Mr. D'Alessandro was named President and COO of John Hancock in January 1998 and assumed responsibility for leading the company's insurance and retail investment businesses as well as its marketing, technology, financial and personnel operations. He became CEO in June 2000, taking on additional responsibilities including direction of the company's extensive investment operations, institutional pension business and overall corporate strategy. Mr. D'Alessandro joined John Hancock in 1984 as Vice President of Corporate Communications. He was promoted to Senior Vice President in 1986, President of the Corporate Sector in 1988 and Senior Executive Vice President in charge of John Hancock's Retail Sector in 1991. He has been a director of the company since 1990. During his tenure with John Hancock, Mr. D'Alessandro has developed and directed the company's integrated consumer marketing strategies and operations, actions which have led to an unprecedented expansion of the company's product lines and distribution channels. In 1991, Mr. D'Alessandro oversaw John Hancock's move from selling its products almost exclusively through its 5,000-person agency field force to marketing its products through a network of 200,000 individuals who are authorized to sell John Hancock products. Under his leadership, the company's market stature has increased markedly, and in 1999 The New York Times named John Hancock "one of the 100 brands that have shaped marketing in the 20th Century." Mr. D'Alessandro is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. A native of Utica, NY, he is a graduate of Utica College of Syracuse University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in public relations and journalism, and in 1996 he received an honorary doctorate from Syracuse University.