(Bloomberg) — Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s specialty insurance business, created last year to expand into new niches, is adding sales of coverage to protect employers against misdeeds by their staffs.

Brian O'Neill was hired from American International Group Inc. to lead the push into the fidelity and crime insurance market, the unit of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a statement. O'Neill will be based in New York.

Peter Eastwood joined from AIG last year to start the specialty insurance unit at Warren Buffett's Berkshire and has been building the staff with former colleagues. The business previously hired two Asia-based executives to lead growth in that region and in May said it was expanding in travel coverage, led by John Noel. Another recent hire, Geoff Delisio, joined from Zurich Insurance Group AG as part of a push into backing construction projects.

“We continue to round out our portfolio of executive and professional lines,” Andre Basile, chief underwriting officer for executive and professional lines at Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, said in the statement.

O'Neill has a bachelor's degree from Iona College and was most recently the executive vice president and the senior fidelity officer at AIG, Berkshire said. Matt Gallagher, a spokesman for New York-based AIG, declined to comment.

–With assistance from Zachary Tracer in New York.

Special Reports /

Berkshire expands in company-crime insurance with new AIG hire

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