Unum Group announced that J. Matthew Royal has joined the company as vice president and chief auditor. He succeeds Nicholas Desiderio, who is retiring after more than 22 years with Unum. In his new capacity, Royal will be responsible for ensuring that company controls are adequate and meet or exceed regulatory requirements.

He will also oversee Unum's special investigative unit. Royal joins Unum from KPMG LLP, where he most recently served as a director in the firm's Insurance Risk Advisory practice and had responsibility for assessing the effectiveness of internal audit functions and developing comprehensive risk assessments and risk-based internal audit plans. He also served as global director for one of KPMG's insurance internal audit relationships.

Royal will be based in Chattanooga, Tenn., and will report to Liston "Bo" Bishop, executive vice president and General Counsel, as well as to the Audit Committee of the company's board of directors.