Christopher O'Connor (pictured) has been named head of professional liability and cyber, North America at American International Group (AIG). The promotion is an internal one. O'Connor brings financial lines and corporate accounts experience to two segments where brokers face some of the market's most complex placement decisions.
O'Connor most recently led corporate accounts for AIG's professional liability and cyber insurance across North America. Prior to that, he oversaw the company's financial institution cyber business. In that role, he worked with the carrier's largest financial institution clients on complex risk programs.
Justin Gilmore, head of financial lines, North America at AIG, announced the appointment on LinkedIn. "Chris has built his career at AIG through a series of underwriting and leadership roles," Gilmore said. Gilmore described O'Connor as someone with deep expertise across the professional liability and cyber business and a strong understanding of complex client needs.
The promotion lands as both cyber and professional liability face a common and growing pressure point: AI. Gallagher's 2026 Cyber Insurance Market Outlook found that overall cyber pricing has retreated to early-2021 levels, driven by carrier competition and capacity growth. Claims complexity, however, has deepened.
The US House Committee on Homeland Security reported that the average cost of a US data breach reached $10 million in 2025. Brokers placing cyber risks are navigating a market where AI-driven threats are reshaping how coverage limits and policy wording are assessed.
On the professional liability side, the directors and officers (D&O) market has recorded four consecutive years of premium decline. Direct premiums fell from nearly $15 billion in 2021 to just over $10 billion in 2025, according to AM Best. The rating agency warned in a June 2026 report that underwriting margins are under increasing pressure as the competitive environment shows structural cracks.
That combination of softening pricing and rising claims complexity is the more useful lens for reading this appointment. A carrier consolidating leadership of two structurally pressured lines under one experienced underwriter, rather than leaving them under separate leaders, is a reasonable signal that AIG expects the two risks to increasingly overlap and wants a single point of underwriting accountability as that overlap grows, particularly as AI becomes embedded in how professional services are delivered and how cyber incidents actually occur.
For brokers, that's worth treating as a market-wide signal rather than an AIG-specific one. Any carrier facing the same D&O premium decline and the same AI-driven cyber claims complexity is likely weighing similar organizational choices, whether or not it results in a public appointment. Brokers placing complex financial lines or cyber business should use this as a prompt to ask any carrier on their panel, not just AIG, how it is structuring underwriting oversight where cyber and professional liability exposures increasingly intersect, since a carrier without a clear answer to that question may be less prepared for the claims complexity both lines are already producing.
O'Connor's background in corporate accounts and financial institution cyber maps to the upper end of AIG's book, where risk complexity and client expectations are highest. Carriers generally are reassessing how cyber and professional liability policies interact as AI becomes embedded in the delivery of professional services, and those lines now fall within the portfolio O'Connor leads at AIG specifically.
O'Connor joined AIG in November 2010 as an underwriting analyst. He holds a Master of Professional Studies in Insurance Management and a Bachelor of Science in Economics, both from Columbia University. He has also served as a guest lecturer in cyber insurance at the university.
