American International Group executive chairman, Peter Zaffino, is leaving to join Palantir Technologies to help expand the data-analytics firm’s business with financial firms.

Mr Zaffino, who stepped down as AIG’s chief executive officer in June to become executive chairman, will stay on as a senior adviser as of September 15, the firm said in a statement yesterday. He’s expected to join Palantir as global head of financial services on January 15.

“Peter has spent his career challenging inertia and rejecting incrementalism within large enterprises,” Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp said in a separate statement.

Mr Zaffino’s move caps a decades-long career in the insurance industry, from reinsurance to brokerage to eventually AIG. In his role as CEO, the executive helped turn the insurer around as it put behind it financial woes and regulatory headwinds inherited from the financial crisis.

Still, his demanding management style left the company with a bruised corporate culture that prompted some associates to quit.

Mr Zaffino is no stranger to Palantir. The firm was working with AIG to explore how to use artificial intelligence throughout its operations. At AIG’s investor day last year, Mr Zaffino invited Mr Karp to talk on stage about the technology’s opportunities.

At Palantir, Mr Zaffino is expected to help expand the firm’s business with firms across the financial industry, including insurance, banking, asset management and private equity.

AIG’s board elected John Rice, its lead independent director, to replace Mr Zaffino as chairman.