Duperreault lifts lid on what tempted him into new chapter with Mereo

Brian Duperreault (pictured) does not like sitting around.

That was his explanation for why he decided to join forces with the founders of Mereo Insurance, a Bermuda-based re/insurer, which launched earlier this year with $700 million of capital.

Duperreault, the legendary former chief executive of AIG, Marsh, ACE (now Chubb) and the founder of Hamilton, was giving “the last word” at the Bermuda Risk Summit, which has been taking place in Bermuda this week and closed yesterday.

These were his first public remarks since the launch of Mereo and came a week before his biography would be unveiled.

Asked what had brought him “out of retirement again” by Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers CEO John Huff, the 77-year-old said he did not think he had come out of retirement but was simply changing jobs.

“I was approached by a couple of guys, one of whom I knew,” he said. “I liked them. I was excited by their concept and how I could help them.

“I wasn’t going to just sit around and there is only so much golf you can play,” Duperreault said.

Asked by Huff what brought him to the Risk Summit, he joked: “I happened to be in town.”

But he added: “I love Bermuda, and I love the Bermuda market as the risk capital. I will do anything I can do to help promote this place. It has been great to me, and I am just here to lend my support.”

Duperreault said Mereo had an interesting structure in that the management of the company was not embedded in the capital it deployed. It has a rated Bermuda-based insurance company, several insurance-linked securities funds and a specialty fund.

“We are managers of capital,” he said. “The underwriters’ job is to match risk and capital. We believe we can find a home for any risk.”

He said he did not believe a new corporate income tax regime would make harm Bermuda, saying the island would continue to be known for its ability to look at risk and find a way to solve problem.

He said the G20 had been pushing the idea of a corporate income tax for Bermuda for a long time, but the Government, insurers and regulators had come up with a way to deal with it.

Duperreault said he had been embarrassed at first that a book on him had been published.

He credited long-time colleague and author Wendy Davis Johnson, saying she had pitched the idea to him, and he had told her that if anyone was going to write a book, he wanted it to be her.

He said he hoped it would give readers some help, adding he had learned from his mistakes over the years.

Asked by audience member what had been his guiding principles over his business career, he said the first was to do “the right thing”.

“If you do that, you can’t go wrong,” he said. “However, the consequences of doing the right thing can be pretty scary.”

Duperreault said the second was to surround yourself with great people.

“I am a little lazy, so put good people around you so you can delegate. Find people who are more capable than me.”

“Third, be open for the next challenge,” he said. “I was always open to the possibility of what might come next.

“ACE came along; I took it.  Marsh came along; I took it. Never cling to a job.

“Do not let a job define you. If I had clung to the ACE job, would never have been at AIG, Marsh or Hamilton.”

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