The board of Adventist Risk Management today selected former Seventh-day Adventist world church general counsel Robert E. Kyte to serve as its new president. The appointment comes eight weeks after the unexpected passing of former president Robert L. Sweezey.

ARM board chairman and Adventist world church treasurer Robert Lemon said Kyte "is someone who enjoys bringing people together to accomplish great things.

"His leadership style is inclusive and his knowledge of the church and how things can be done is refreshing," Lemon said.

Based at the church's world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, ARM offers risk management services and manages some $150 million of the church's international assets. It currently employs 160 people in offices worldwide.

Kyte resigned from his position in May as Adventist Church general counsel, a position he held for four years before relocating to Boise, Idaho, to serve as general counsel for Healthwise, a nonprofit consumer health information company.

During his tenure as leader of the church's Office of General Counsel, Kyte was involved with every entity of the church, including ARM. He conducted extensive training to assist in prevention of legal problems, risk and liability, and in settling disputes for church organizations. He brought significant levels of work from outside counsel into the Office of General Counsel, reducing the legal costs by more than $1 million.

"My intent is to build on the base that Rob [Sweezy] and the team put in place and to build an environment of good leadership that reinforces team efforts by all the employees," Kyte told ANN following his appointment.

Kyte, 56, previously served as president, chief executive officer and general counsel for Pacific Press Publishing Association in Nampa, Idaho, from 1989 to 2005. During his tenure as president, the organization had a five-fold increase of profits, transforming the publisher's financial status from high debt to debt-free with investments as a result of capital, cash flow and asset management.

He also reorganized internal functions with product teams focused on marketing and customer service, and he helped enhance global marketing efforts through consultation and agreements with church publishing organizations in Australia, Central and South America, Europe and Africa.

Kyte spent more than 25 years working for Pacific Press, beginning in the retail division and moving into corporate sales and marketing. He was part of the team that led in the relocation of the company from California to Idaho in 1984. Kyte returned to Pacific Press following law school at Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Oregon, and practicing law at Skinner Fawcett Law Offices.

A graduate of Walla Walla University, Kyte is a member of the Idaho State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, The United States District Court for the District of Idaho, The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the American Bar Association.

Kyte said he plans to transition into his new role through January and be at ARM full time by February.