AIG files suit against former comrades behind new insurer Dellwood
AIG has filed a suit against estranged senior executives to block their launch of a rival E&S insurer, US court records indicate.
A slew of AIG units have filed the suit against Thomas Connolly, Kean Driscoll and Michael Price, recent AIG executives and founders of Dellwood Insurance.
Dellwood made waves on word the top-line industry veterans had raised over $250 million in capital and backing from key players like RenaissanceRe, PartnerRe, and Starr Insurance.
The new US excess and surplus lines (E&S) insurance holding focuses exclusively on wholesale brokers and emphasising small and middle enterprise (SME) risks.
Price led the exodus from AIG’s North America General Insurance, having served as the units CEO until mid-2023. Driscoll, the chief underwriting officer of General Insurance, followed at end-March 2024.
AIG claims both were well compensated to sign on to a series of post-employment contractual obligations and that the track record of Dellwood's launch shows violation of non-competition clauses, including in the new group's set-up and major fundraising.
“Plainly, Price and Driscoll were in the market competing against AIG well prior to the March 3, 2024 expiration of Driscoll’s garden leave and non-compete obligations and likely before the September 30, 2023 expiration of Price’s non-compete obligation,” AIG wrote in its complaint to the court.
AIG executive Connolly, CFO of North America General Insurance, was allegedly recruited during a no-poach period and is now accused of “work for Dellwood as a secret agent” during his final month at AIG.
AIG is asking the court to “halt Defendants’ unlawful misappropriation of AIG’s trade secrets and confidential information” in the new venture. Also among accusations: breaches of contract, breaches of fiduciary duty, unfair competition, and violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
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