Former Connecticut Regulator Leonardi Joins AIG in Public Policy Post

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American International Group reported that Thomas Leonardi will join the company as executive vice president, Government Affairs, Public Policy and Communications, effective Nov. 1.

Leonardi previously served as the Commissioner of Insurance at the Connecticut Insurance Department, and as an investment banker and venture capitalist.

Leonardi will report to Chief Executive Officer Brian Duperreault and will oversee AIG’s global public policy and government affairs and build lines of communication with the numerous regulators that oversee AIG at the state, federal and international levels. He will also provide oversight of the Corporate Communications and Marketing function.

He will work with Executive Vice President and General Counsel Lucy Fato, who will continue to oversee global regulatory matters in addition to the company’s legal and compliance departments.

Duperreault noted that he served with Leonardi on the board of the Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance. “His knowledge of the insurance industry and the regulatory environment gained during his time in the private and public sectors will be an asset to AIG as we position the company for future growth,” Duperreault said.

Leonardi joins AIG from investment banking advisor Evercore, where he was a senior advisor focused on the insurance industry. He joined Evercore in December, 2014 after serving as head of the Connecticut Insurance Department for almost four years. He was named to the state regulatory post by Gov. Dannel Malloy in February 2011.

For 22 years prior to his appointment as Connecticut commissioner, Leonardi was founder, chairman and CEO of Connecticut-based Northington Partners Inc., a broker dealer, venture capital, private equity and investment banking boutique that specialized in the insurance industry. Before Northington, he was head of the investment banking and venture capital divisions of Conning & Co., and president of Beneficial Corp.’s insurance subsidiaries.

Leonardi has also served as a member of the executive committee of both the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors. He was a member of the U.S. Treasury’s inaugural Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance, and was selected to serve on the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Insurance and Asset Management.

During his tenure as state commissioner and a member of the NAIC, he criticized the NAIC for some of its internal governing practices. “If the companies we regulate had the same governance issues we have here at the NAIC, we would be outraged and ‘heads would roll,'” Leonardi wrote in a letter in 2014. The NAIC responded by hiring a consultant to review its practices.