The man, the myth, the leader: Brian Duperreault’s legacy
A unique blend of authority and humility led Brian Duperreault to influence the shape and direction of the global re/insurance industry in a way that has few comparisons. Here, Duperreault discusses with Bermuda:Re+ILS what he believes set him apart – and how another industry legend, Hank Greenberg, inspired him and drove him to do better.
Brian Duperreault needs little introduction to the global, let alone Bermudan, re/insurance community; a seasoned professional famed for his reconstructive management of AIG on his return to the company that made him in 2017. This, of course, comes after transforming both a broker and a carrier and leading three companies to Fortune 500 status.
But for all his success in corporate life, his legacy has touched many on a personal level – and has created a model imprint of how leadership should be done. His is a story that needed to be told.
His leadership stance, alongside the backstory that made him, was published earlier this year in Faith & Purpose: The Life & Vision of Insurance Icon Brian Duperreault, by Wendy Davis Johnson.
Spanning his childhood, formative education, love story with beloved wife Nancy and his stints in the Army, the biography paints the backdrop to what made Duperreault the man he is: a leader.
It goes on to detail Duperreault’s ascent through the insurance sector ranks, with influence imparted from pivotal figures, namely Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, former AIG CEO – a mentor for Duperreault, though dramatically different in character.
As a foreword, the biography presents Duperreault’s 10 thoughts on leadership, informed by his reflection during the book's creation and from interviews with many people he has managed across his 50 years in the industry. Setting out the section, Davis Johnson states that Duperreault is “a powerful blend of authority and humility. He knows how to build great teams. He treats everyone with respect. He is courageous, bold and visionary.”
A natural-born leader
Dissecting the intricacies of his development in the insurance industry, one clear throughline stands out as his story unfolds on the page: Duperreault is a natural-born leader.
Speaking exclusively to Bermuda:Re+ILS earlier this year, Duperreault described a little of his background in his own words, expressing surprise at how he found himself in leadership shoes.
“I had a tremendously beneficial upbringing. I was raised by a village with nuns and priests looking out for me at all times. I grew up quicker; I was an adult before the others were, in a way, because I had to be. But I never felt deprived. I was the first child in our family to go to college, and I got a great education with great grounding. I feel I had it easy.
“I wasn't motivated. Things kind of came naturally to me. I was a naturally good student; I could get by with a minimum, and I tried to find what that minimum was at all times! I was a good athlete, so I was put in positions of leadership early, more than I sought them out, like the captain of the football team.
“My coach chose me to be in a position of leadership, I guess he saw something in me. But was I motivated to be the leader? I wasn't pressing for it. I was the student council president. Was I campaigning? No, I was nominated. I wasn't motivated to go to college; it was just the thing to do.”
While at first glance this might not seem like a character set to inspire, when stepping back to see the magnitude of achievements Duperreault holds under his belt, it speaks to his humble and personable nature that has led him so far in his career. A nod to his second thought on leadership, “you’re in the service of others”.
Army wake-up call to AIG
While his drive to do better began as roots to his marriage, insurance seemed to be the turning point for Duperreault. He explained that: “My father-in-law wasn't thrilled when Nancy brought me around because I had no thought about life. Things were too easy for me, honestly.
“And then I joined the Army. Holy cow, that woke me up! And my mum and Nancy – I think my whole family – thanked God I went into the Army. I’d been too full of myself, but the motivation came when I had obligations; clearly, I had to get a job, I had a wife and had to support us. That's what focused me. Then I got to AIG, I thrived in that environment, and the motivation came with that; I worked crazy hours, did crazy things.”
His passion for insurance, as noted in the book, shines through as soon as Duperreault turns to the subject. This energy is infectious, and it is clear to understand, in his presence, why he was able to influence many. It also explains how he routinely managed to implement a further thought on leadership, ”get your teams facing the same direction.”
Turning specifically to his insurance career, Duperreault explained his thought process behind the move that put him before one of the most pivotal figures of his career.
“If I were going to go to any insurance company, there was no better one for me than AIG at the time – it was just breaking all the rules, rewriting the roles of brokers and underwriters, and how insurance should be done. Greenberg was rewriting the story, and I was there for it.”
The Greenberg enigma
In much the same way, Greenberg’s legacy proceeds him, but in a very different way from Duperreault’s. With deep admiration, Duperreault drilled down into what made Greenberg to explain the influence this had on his own style that he carried forward beyond his time at AIG, at ACE, Marsh & McLennan, and Hamilton Insurance Group, before returning to AIG and now, most recently, in his new venture as executive chairman of Mereo Insurance.
He explained: “Greenberg is bigger than life, an enigma, because he had such an intimidating presence, even though he isn't a big man. And yet, boy, everybody stood terrified of him. Was I terrified of him? Yeah, I had moments! There are very few people like him who have his intellect; that’s what makes him intimidating. It was this power of motivation and knowledge that came out of him.
“If there were one question you didn’t want him to ask, he would ask it; if there's one thing you didn't do that day, he’d know it. He had this remarkable way of knowing and asking, and it helped me in my ability to lead because I got in the habit of asking questions, too.
“Greenberg would make us do role-play to develop our skills. We’d always rehearse in advance. People would come to me saying, ‘I have a meeting, and you’ve got to help me!’ So I would be Greenberg.
“I'm not anything like Greenberg, but I would become him. I could see how actors love to do that! I would get into Greenberg mode, and Greenberg mode is asking questions. Since I knew what my colleague’s weak points were, I could go after them and get them prepared for what was to come. Naturally, he’d always find some other question I didn't come up with.
“It was fun to do, but it helped me with the process of asking questions. If you're naturally inquisitive, you'll ask the question, and then you get a reputation for asking. People anticipate and answer the question they thought you were going to ask, whether you asked it or not. They'll just spill the beans.
“So it's funny; if you can develop that reputation, it carries a lot with it. A lot happens when someone thinks you’re going to ask them the right question. An assumption is built that you’re only asking questions that you know the answer to. I wouldn't know what the answer was, I was just asking the question.”
Collaboration over fear
While whimsical, Duperreault’s recount outlines early influence for two further thoughts on leadership: “be curious and ask questions” and “no such thing as too much communication”. Communication, however, seems to be an area where Duperreault’s and Greenberg’s styles split.
Duperreault explained: “I didn’t take the same leadership stance as Greenberg. I didn’t want people to be terrified of me. You have to have an edge but not terrify them. I wanted to work collaboratively. If the person on the other side of the table is terrified, there’s not a lot of give and take. I wanted people to be comfortable enough in the situation that they felt that they could talk without fear, that they could tell me what's really wrong. We never wanted to confess in front of Greenberg. I didn’t want that environment. His style worked for him, but it wasn’t for me.
“Greenberg was the leader, and his opinion mattered the most at all times. It worked because he was right most of the time. I didn’t feel I was right most of the time, but I thought collectively, we could be. So I needed others to get to the truth. That’s why my process was much more about getting a collaborative effort behind my leadership.”
A pivotal moment in Duperreault’s career was his decision to return to AIG in 2017. Following Greenberg’s departure in 2005, AIG took a catastrophic downturn, which included improper accounting charges, and the 2008 financial crisis left AIG in complete disarray, requiring a $182 billion US Federal Reserve bailout.
Taking every opportunity
The biography recounts that AIG had always been calling for him, so when the opportunity came knocking, Duperreault couldn’t refuse. As his tenth thought on leadership dictates, “take every job opportunity – even lateral ones”.
“Going back to AIG proved difficult; I was familiar with it; therefore, I had a lot of beliefs that weren't true any more. It was all a matter of discovery; it takes a while when you’re fresh to something. The problems were really deep. That's how strong AIG really is; there were decades of unaddressed problems.
“I had to undo a lot of well-meaning processes, approaches, and dogma that didn't work in front of a lot of people who believed those were the right things to be done. The clean-up was harder than the clean-up at Marsh or at ACE, where there were some problems we had to fix, but they were nothing like the basic structural issues that needed addressing at AIG.
“We had a company that was controlled by the federal government because it was considered an incredibly risky business, therefore there needed to be controls to prevent risks becoming overwhelming. When I came in, the risks were overwhelming.
“How could that be? It's a contradiction. But the federal government was worried much more about the asset side, and insurance is all about the liability side; they had not been paying enough attention to liability.
“Liability was out of control. I had to go in and get rid of a lot of premium. You then have to explain premium drops to your shareholders in quarterly results, and hope that they trust your strategy. It’s pretty ugly; they have to believe it will be fixed. Most shareholders would say: ‘you're a great guy, and I’m sure you'll get this fixed. When I’m sure that you’re getting it fixed, I’ll buy your stock back. But right now, I’m getting rid of it.’
“The stock market was telling me one thing, and I was doing the other in a way. It was hard. I couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t had the experience to know that what I was doing was the right thing to do. I needed that inner strength because everything was pushing against it. I used to say at that point, there were probably five guys in the world that could run AIG, and only one stupid enough to do it, and that was me!”
While Duperreault may have considered himself stupid, others consider him courageous. His work at AIG set the company back on the right path, a path that Duperrault believes current CEO Peter Zaffino is continuing well.
Many aspects of Duperreault’s character stand out through the retelling of his story, but one thing is overwhelmingly clear: Duperreault is the insurance industry's man, myth, legend, leader.
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