Robert Benmosche, the former chairman and chief executive of MetLife Inc., has been selected to be the new CEO of American International Group Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
The board of the giant insurer approved the selection Monday morning, one of the people said. Mr. Benmosche succeeds Edward Liddy, another insurance industry executive who took the helm of AIG in September as the government rescued the company from the brink of bankruptcy.
Mr. Liddy had indicated that his tenure would not be long term, and in the spring efforts to identify his successor gained speed.
Mr. Benmosche takes the helm of a company that is one of the biggest recipients of government aid amid the financial crisis and one that has drawn widespread criticism from Congress and the public. Its fate, as well as its ability to repay the tens of billions in government aid it has received, remains unclear as it continues to try to sell assets to raise cash.
In Mr. Benmosche, the AIG board has chosen an executive with longstanding experience in the insurance industry. Mr. Benmosche joined MetLife in 1995 and became its CEO in 1998. He retired as CEO in March 2006 and as chairman later that year. MetLife has weathered the financial crisis better than some of its competitors in the life insurance industry.
As CEO, Mr. Benmosche will have what Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in May described as “one of the most challenging jobs in the American financial system today.” Mr. Benmosche will oversee efforts to sell off assets at what’s proven to be an extremely complicated conglomerate, far more complicated than Mr. Liddy said he had anticipated.
He will also have to navigate AIG’s unusual corporate structure, which includes both a board of directors and three trustees who represent the government’s nearly 80% stake in the company. More broadly, the job in effect answers to multiple overseers in Washington, including members of Congress who have expressed outrage and frustration with the cost of the AIG bailout and actions the company has taken, including paying out bonuses to employees in a unit that’s considered largely responsible for the conglomerate’s woes.
AIG also faces potentially controversial decisions near term, including whether to continue paying bonuses to employees in that unit and executives elsewhere in the company.
On that score, Mr. Benmosche is expected to work with Kenneth Feinberg, the so-called pay czar at Treasury tasked with overseeing pay policies at companies that have received major government aid. Mr. Benmosche will also likely work with Jim Millstein, the government’s new chief restructuring officer whose job is helping the government manage its investments in AIG and other financial behemoths.
Source : AFP
