Panetta Named Director at Insurer

* Leon E. Panetta, a former White House chief of staff, was named a director of Zenith National Insurance Corp., the Woodland Hills-based workers’ compensation insurer.

Panetta, once considered a Democratic candidate for governor in California, was President Clinton’s chief of staff from 1994 to 1997. He was director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994 and before that was a congressman from Northern California.

Zenith National has been hit hard by price-cutting in and outside the California workers’ compensation market. The company posted a first-quarter net loss of $4.4 million, or 26 cents a share, contrasted with a net income of $104.4 million, or $6.09 a share, a year earlier.