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AIG has appointed insurance veteran Eric Andersen as its next chief executive as it prepares to take on more risk to fuel growth after dramatically paring back its operations since it nearly collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis.
Andersen, previously president of the world’s second-largest insurance broker Aon, will replace Peter Zaffino, who has steered AIG through a turnaround from years of low profits.
Andersen will join as president and CEO-elect next month and is expected to assume the role in June, while Zaffino will retire from the position by the middle of the year and become executive chair, AIG said on Tuesday.
Shares in AIG, which has a market capitalisation of about $46bn, fell 5 per cent in pre-market trading on Tuesday.
The announcement comes after the company said in November that it would cancel the appointment of John Neal, the former chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, as president of AIG’s US group.
Neal, who had been widely viewed as Zaffino’s likely successor, faced a Lloyd’s investigation into possible governance failings concerning the appointment of a former executive at the insurance market. In an SEC filing, AIG cited “personal circumstances” as the reason for scrapping Neal’s appointment.
AIG was once the largest insurance provider in the world, according to the US Treasury, with more than $1tn in assets globally. But the group, led for nearly four decades by insurance veteran Maurice “Hank” Greenberg until 2005, has pared down to a leaner business with a $46bn market capitalisation, including by spinning off its life and retirement division into a standalone company, Corebridge.
“We have returned AIG to vastly improved profitability, significantly strengthened our balance sheet and built tremendous financial flexibility,” Zaffino said on Tuesday, adding that Andersen was “an incredibly accomplished and widely respected insurance executive”.
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