New AIG CEO Wants to Grow the Insurer Again
July 24, 2017 by Jay Cooper
New AIG CEO Brian Duperreault has a clear vision for AIG’s future. In a word: growth.
The new leader of one of the world’s largest insurers shared details on his past, and AIG’s future, with The Wall Street Journal in his first extensive interview since accepting the job in May.
For Duperreault, who started his career at AIG in 1973 and stayed with the insurer until 1994, the return was personal. He tells The Journal that after seeing his alma mater struggle, his heart was telling him to take the job.
Now that he is there, a prior strategy designed to divest businesses is out the window. Duperreault says he believes AIG has shrunk enough after shedding different businesses to help repay a $185 billion government bailout.
Instead, he wants to expand through acquisitions as well as through AIG’s life and personal lines insurance businesses. For those businesses, he sees particular potential for international growth.
The company will also increase its use of data science and predictive analytics, particularly to expand sales to midsize businesses, The Journalreports. That initiative will be carried out through Hamilton USA, a unit within Hamilton Insurance Group that AIG acquired when Duperreault took the helm. Duperreault co-founded Hamilton Insurance Group and was its chairman and CEO before returning to AIG.
As part of its interview, The Journal shared details on his first days with AIG. Duperreault has been meeting employees at town halls and sharing details about himself, including his religious faith, a guiding force for Duperreault.
Duperreault joined AIG in 1973, and was immediately tasked with creating a type of divorce insurance that would guarantee income if a marriage failed. The product never launched, but he eventually became close with Maurice R. Hank” Greenberg, AIG’s founder and, at the time, CEO.
Duperreault tells The Journal he left in 1994 to prove to himself he could stand alone and succeed without Greenberg. Duperreault left for ACE Ltd., which he diversified and expanded through acquisitions.
In 2008, he joined brokerage and consulting firm Marsh & McLennan, where he also acquired smaller firms to help grow the business. Duperreault then left the company in 2012, and co-founded Hamilton Insurance Group in 2013.
Duperreault’s former mentor Greenberg tells The Journal that those prior experiences make him well suited to grow AIG. Greenberg also endorses Duperreault’s decision to abandon the strategy of divesting some of AIG’s businesses.
