American International Group made a number of senior leadership changes intended to aid in the separation of its Life & Retirement business and other strategic priorities.

Among the biggest changes: Mark Lyons, currently executive vice president and chief financial officer, AIG, will step into a newly created role of executive vice president, global chief actuary and head of portfolio management, AIG. In this role, Lyons will oversee AIG’s global actuarial and ceded reinsurance functions, as well as lead ongoing improvements in AIG’s commercial and personal insurance portfolio. This is effective January 1, 2022,

Lyons joined AIG in July 2018 as chief actuary, General Insurance, with more than 40 years of experience in the insurance industry. He assumed the role of CFO for AIG in December 2018. Prior to joining AIG, he was with Arch Capital Group. Before Arch, he held positions at Zurich U.S., Berkshire Hathaway and previously at AIG.

In his place, Shane Fitzsimons will become executive vice president and chief financial officer, AIG.

Fitzsimons joined AIG in July 2019 as global head of Shared Services. He has held roles with increasing responsibility, most recently serving as executive vice president and chief administrative officer, which included head of Financial Planning & Analysis. Fitzsimons also oversaw the modernization initiative AIG 200. Previously, he spent 23 years at GE.

Lyons and Fitzsimons will both continue reporting to AIG President and CEO Peter Zaffino and remain members of AIG’s executive leadership team.

“The leadership roles we are announcing today strengthen our senior management team and support the momentum we have with respect to our highest strategic priorities: positioning AIG’s core businesses for long-term, sustainable profitability, preparing our Life & Retirement business to be a standalone market-leading franchise, and the continued execution of AIG 200,” Zaffino said in prepared remarks.

Other Related AIG Executive Moves

AIG also announced that Elias Habayeb, currently chief financial officer, General Insurance, and deputy chief financial officer, AIG, has been named chief financial officer for AIG’s Life & Retirement business, effective immediately. Habayeb is replacing current Life & Retirement CFO Tom Diemer, who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

Habayeb has been with AIG for more than 16 years, serving in a number of senior financial roles, most recently as CFO for General Insurance. He also served as AIG’s deputy CFO and will continue to serve as AIG’s chief accounting officer through February 2022. His previous roles included CFO of International Lease Finance Corp., a subsidiary of AIG. Prior to AIG, Habayeb was a partner at Deloitte.

As part of the ongoing work to separate the Life & Retirement business, including portions of AIG’s Investments unit, Elaine Rocha, currently global chief operating officer, Reinsurance, has been promoted to global chief investment officer, AIG, effective immediately. She reports to Lyons and will transition to reporting to Fitzsimons in January 2022. Rocha will lead the Investments unit that will remain with AIG.

Over her more than 11-year tenure with AIG, Rocha has contributed across multiple AIG businesses and functions, including Reinsurance; Investments; Legal and AIG 200. From 2015 to 2020, Rocha served as global chief operating officer for AIG’s Investments unit. Before joining AIG, Rocha served as an attorney in private practice for over a decade.

AIG announced in 2020 that it would take steps to split its life insurance and retirement businesses off from its property and casualty operations. The insurer has said it will use an initial public offering to sell nearly 20% of the business. Blackstone Group has also agreed to buy a sizeable stake in the unit.

AIG disclosed d that Ted Devine has joined AIG as global head of AIG 200, reporting to Zaffino. Devine has been advising AIG on its AIG 200 effort since 2019, focusing on technology delivery and user experience. In this new role, he will be responsible for overseeing and driving continued momentum across AIG 200 as the company modernizes its infrastructure.

Prior to joining AIG, Devine served as founder and CEO of the InsurTech broker Insureon, president of Aon Global Retail Brokerage, CEO of Aon Reinsurance, president of Aon Americas, a senior partner at McKinsey and Co. focusing on the Insurance sector, and senior manager of Deloitte’s M&A practice.

Source: AIG

*A version of this story ran previously in our sister publication Insurance Journal.