Global insurers don’t get second chances easily. Once trust is broken, markets are quick to move on, competitors sharpen their play, and regulators tighten the leash. Yet AIG — once the very symbol of financial turbulence — is scripting a new chapter. At the heart of this turnaround is Peter Zaffino, a leader whose quiet discipline and relentless clarity are reshaping one of the most complex organizations in the financial world.
Zaffino’s story is not one of overnight heroics. It’s about years of calculated decisions, painstaking transformation, and the belief that insurance can be both stable and innovative at the same time. To watch him lead AIG today is to witness how an industry giant can be rebuilt for resilience — brick by brick, system by system, culture by culture.
Rebuilding Trust in a Century-Old Giant
When Peter Zaffino joined AIG in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer, the company was still grappling with the shadow of its past. Investors were skeptical, employees were weary, and customers had plenty of alternatives. But where many saw a legacy too heavy to carry, Zaffino saw an institution with untapped potential — one that could be sharpened, re-engineered, and restored to strength.
His first moves were less about headlines and more about fundamentals. He went deep into the business, starting with the General Insurance segment, a unit critical to AIG’s backbone. Here, he applied a simple principle: insurance is only as strong as its underwriting discipline. Losses had to be reined in, pricing recalibrated, and risk models rebuilt with rigor. It was back to basics, but with a forward-looking lens.
The Power of Transformation: AIG 200
If Zaffino had a single signature move, it was AIG 200. Announced in 2019, this multi-year transformation program was not just about cost-cutting or operational tweaks. It was about redesigning the way AIG worked — modernizing decades of outdated systems, unifying fragmented processes, and setting standards that matched global scale.
Technology became a central lever. Legacy workflows were digitized, claims processes streamlined, and data tools sharpened underwriting decisions. For an organization spread across more than 80 countries, the shift meant greater speed, consistency, and resilience.
By 2022, the results were undeniable: AIG recorded its strongest underwriting profitability in history. Combined ratios improved, reinsurance programs were restructured, and expense ratios moved in the right direction. It wasn’t just a financial turnaround; it was proof that disciplined transformation could restore faith in an institution once written off.
Leadership by Discipline
Zaffino is not a leader of theatrics. His style is precise, structured, and deeply rooted in accountability. Teams under him operate with clarity — every business line must deliver measurable returns, every underwriter must own the quality of their portfolio, and every leader is tasked with thinking long-term.
But discipline doesn’t mean rigidity. Zaffino’s approach balances structure with ambition. He has leaned into areas where AIG can lead the market — specialty insurance, excess and surplus lines, and innovative risk solutions. He understands that insurers today are not just risk managers; they are resilience enablers for businesses navigating everything from climate change to cyber threats.
Achievements That Speak Loudly
The past few years under Zaffino’s leadership have marked milestones that few thought possible:
Operational turnaround: AIG’s General Insurance business returned to underwriting profitability after years of underperformance.
Strategic focus: The spin-off of Corebridge Financial sharpened AIG’s focus on property and casualty, reducing complexity.
Global consistency: Transformation efforts brought greater alignment across regions, ensuring underwriting and pricing are globally standardized but locally relevant.
Board confidence: In 2022, AIG’s Board extended his leadership with a five-year agreement, a signal of faith in the transformation path he is steering.
Looking Ahead: Insurance with Purpose
Zaffino’s ambitions are not just about turning red ink into black. His eyes are firmly on the future of insurance. He sees technology — from advanced data science to AI — not as optional add-ons but as core to risk decisioning. He’s pushing AIG to become faster in claims response, sharper in fraud detection, and smarter in capital allocation.
At the same time, he recognizes the mounting weight of systemic risks. From climate-driven catastrophes to geopolitical shocks, insurers are expected to shoulder risks that reshape economies. For Zaffino, this is not just a financial challenge but a responsibility: to price risk fairly, manage it prudently, and ensure insurance continues to provide stability to global markets.
What makes Peter Zaffino stand out is not just that he is turning AIG around, but how he is doing it. In an industry that often oscillates between short-term wins and long-term promises, Zaffino is building foundations designed to last. He’s proving that legacy institutions don’t have to fade into irrelevance — they can reinvent themselves, provided the leadership is uncompromising in its discipline and bold in its vision.
For investors, corporate clients, and the wider insurance ecosystem, Zaffino represents stability with ambition. For AIG’s 100-year history, he represents a second century built not on the weight of the past but on the possibilities of the future.
