AIG shuffles its top deck, promotes Bolt to chief risk officer

Global insurance conglomerate  American International Group (AIG) has once again instituted a large leadership shakeup with a variety of new appointments, including a new group chief risk officer (CRO) and chief underwriting officer (CUO) of general insurance, as the carrier continues to “reshape” its portfolio and strategy to become a “top performing company”.

Industry veteran Tom Bolt (pictured left), formerly of Berkshire Hathaway, has been appointed as new executive vice president and CRO of AIG. He replaces Sabra Purtill (pictured right), who moves to AIG’s Life & Retirement business (Corebridge Financial) as its executive vice president and new chief investment officer.

Additionally, Kean Driscoll has been named CUO of AIG’s general insurance business, a role served by Bolt since 2018.

Bolt joined AIG from Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, where he was president and CEO of the UK and Southern Europe, and a member of Berkshire Hathaway International Insurance’s board of directors. Prior to that, Bolt was director of performance management at Lloyd’s of London and managing director of Marlborough Managing Agency at Lloyd’s. Before joining Lloyd’s, he spent 25 years at Berkshire Hathaway in a variety of senior executive roles.

Driscoll has served as global head of reinsurance strategy, General Insurance, since 2020 and global chief underwriting officer, property/agriculture, General Insurance, since 2019. He was a founding member of Validus and served as chief executive officer of Validus Re from 2012 until he joined the AIG General Insurance CUO in 2019. He has more than 25 years of experience as a reinsurance underwriter, and previously held leadership roles with Quanta Re and Zurich Re N.A. (Converium).

Purtill has been executive vice president, CRO of AIG since July 2021, and has previously served as AIG’s deputy CFO overseeing treasury, rating agency relations, investor relations and corporate development. Prior to joining AIG in 2019, Purtill was with The Hartford Financial Services Group, where she served as SVP, investor relations & treasurer. She was also managing director, investor relations & communications, at Assured Guaranty and prior to that was a corporate finance officer at ACE Limited, now known as Chubb.

Commenting on the appointments, Peter Zaffino, chairman and chief executive officer of AIG, said: “Over his more than 35 years in insurance and reinsurance, Tom has developed deep underwriting expertise and, since joining AIG in 2018, he has played a critical role in the turnaround of our General Insurance business by setting standards for underwriting excellence and playing a leadership role in strengthening our culture while reshaping our portfolio. His unique background, experience and stature in our industry will be invaluable as we continue to focus on managing complex, operational and global risk issues at AIG. I look forward to working with Tom in this new role as we refine our risk management framework across our global business.”

He added: “Since joining AIG in 2018, Kean has been a key contributor to our portfolio management and in shaping our strategic reinsurance structures. As Chief Underwriting Officer, his expertise in underwriting and modeling application will continue to drive momentum as we continue our journey to become a top performing company.”

“Sabra has made significant and valuable contributions to AIG in her roles as Chief Risk Officer and previously Deputy CFO. Her risk and capital markets expertise, as well as decades working in senior roles in the insurance industry make her a great fit for this leadership position,” Zaffino continued.

“Repositioning the Life & Retirement operating model for asset management given our strategic partnerships with world class companies such as Blackstone and BlackRock, while maintaining internal capabilities with respect to asset classes where we have a strong track record, is a critical part of the separation of Life & Retirement from AIG.  Sabra’s experience and broad industry knowledge will help accelerate this work.”

Kevin Hogan, executive vice president and CEO of Life & Retirement, said: “I have deep respect for Sabra and what she has accomplished in her career and at AIG. Sabra also has strong relationships with the analyst and investor communities, and I know she will augment our leadership team as we continue to achieve important milestones towards becoming a standalone, public company.”

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