Kevin H. Kelley has left his post as chief executive officer of American International Group's Lexington Insurance Company and president of AIG Domestic Personal Lines to become CEO of Ironshore Inc., it was announced today.

Financially-troubled AIG--which has been arguing that it needs to pay hefty retention bonuses to keep staff in place while it struggles to remain liquid--said Peter Eastwood had been promoted from executive vice president to CEO of Lexington.

After a reorganization in April, AIG created a Property Casualty Group, with AIG Executive Vice President Kristian P. Moor as president and CEO. At that point, Mr. Kelley--in addition to being Lexington's chairman and CEO--was appointed executive vice president of AIG Property Casualty Group and president of AIG Domestic Personal Lines, reporting to Mr. Moor. Mr. Kelley resigned his posts yesterday.

In bringing Mr. Kelley on board as CEO, Ironshore--a specialty commercial property and casualty insurer--moved him into a slot that had been held by Bob Deutsch since the company was licensed in the Cayman Islands in 2006. Mr. Deutsch remains as president.

The transition came so quickly that early yesterday Mr. Deutsch was still listed on the company Web site as CEO. Lexington was quicker putting up Mr. Eastwood as CEO on its Web site.

In announcing Mr. Kelley's appointment, Ironshore said that under his leadership, Lexington "had become the largest excess and surplus lines insurer in the world."

In a statement, Mr. Deutsch said that "Ironshore's singular focus has always been to create shareholder value by building a world-class specialty insurance company. Attracting Kevin Kelley, one of the most talented insurance executives in the last two decades, significantly increases our ability to take advantage of the changing insurance marketplace. I welcome the opportunity to work alongside him."

Bob Clements, a director and a founder of Ironshore, remarked that "Ironshore has accomplished a great deal under Bob Deutsch's leadership these past two years, including establishing successful platforms in Bermuda, the U.S. and London. We thank Bob for his complete support of Kevin and his future role as Kevin's partner."

"I am excited to join Ironshore, and am impressed with what has been accomplished in its first two years," said a statement from Mr. Kelley. "I look forward to working with Bob and his talented colleagues to grow Ironshore into a large, specialty company as it moves from its initial development stage."

Lexington is a unit of AIG Commercial Insurance. Mr. Eastwood joined AIG in 1991, serving in a senior management position with AIG Executive liability, AIG Risk Finance, AIG Reinsurance Advisors and Lexington Insurance Company.

Previously, Mr. Eastwood was responsible for managing Lexington's extensive healthcare operations during his most recent position as executive vice president of Lexington.

"Peter Eastwood's experience with AIG and Lexington make him ideally suited to lead Lexington," said Mr. Moor. "With almost 20 years of experience in high-profile underwriting positions, I am confident he will maintain Lexington's industry leadership. We greatly appreciate Kevin Kelley's service to AIG and we wish him well."