Former AIG, MetLife chief Benmosche Dies at 70

Robert Benmosche, the combative former chief govt officer of yank global institution Inc. who led the insurer, once the world’s largest, to repay a $182.three billion taxpayer bailout, has died. He changed into 70.

He died on Friday at NYU Langone scientific center in big apple following treatment for lung most cancers, AIG said in a statement. The insurer introduced in October 2010 that Benmosche had most cancers, and the CEO said last August that he’d moved up his departure after his diagnosis worsened. Benmosche was changed by way of Peter Hancock on Sept. 1.

Benmosche got here out of retirement in August 2009 to take over a business enterprise reeling from losses on failed housing-marketplace bets, and led the insurer for half a decade. He positioned big apple- based AIG on the road to repaying taxpayers and along the way, the continually-tan, silver-haired Benmosche became the most outspoken AIG chief due to the fact that Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, who was pressured out in 2005 as the insurer turned into investigated for accounting irregularities.

“I create so much hassle, don’t I?,” Benmosche told employees at a meeting rapidly after he started out. “That’s my process.”

Benmosche offered primary divisions and centered on U.S. lifestyles coverage and global belongings/casualty insurance. He also sparred with authorities overseers, rebelled against U.S.-applied pay caps that he said restricted the firm’s potential to retain workforce, threatened to cease as a minimum two times and succeeded in ousting then- Chairman Harvey Golub with a “him-or-me” showdown.

management energy

“nobody gave AIG a threat returned in 2009,” Steve Miller, AIG’s non-government chairman, stated in a September 2014 interview on Bloomberg tv. From Benmosche, “i've discovered, one extra time, the power of more management, even in the most disastrous of instances,” Miller said.

Benmosche became AIG’s fifth leader in five years, eventually bringing stability to the pinnacle job after a succession of leaders felled by way of marketplace losses and the bailout. The CEO revolving door after Greenberg included Martin Sullivan, Robert Willumstad and Edward Liddy.

“He’s the quality they’ve had considering I left the business enterprise,” Greenberg said of Benmosche in a 2010 interview with Fox enterprise community. Greenberg, who ran AIG for about 38 years, had succeeded Cornelius Vander Starr and took the business enterprise public in 1969.

‘No concept’

Liddy, the former chief government of Allstate Corp., became hooked up on Sept. 18, 2008, as chairman and CEO by means of the U.S. Treasury branch and voluntarily took an annual income of $1. He held both jobs until August 2009 while he resigned, announcing in a farewell letter to personnel that he “had no idea what i used to be in for” while he joined AIG. “It hasn’t been smooth, and goodness is aware of, it hasn’t been pretty,” Liddy wrote.

Benmosche, whose revenue turned into $7 million in 2010, his first complete year, had his personal tribulations as CEO, chafing at government oversight of the insurer.

buyers benefited from Benmosche’s turnaround strategies, after the inventory plunged 97 percentage in 2008, the year housing- marketplace related losses pushed the company to the brink of fall apart. The stocks closed at $fifty six.06 on Benmosche’s ultimate day as CEO, as compared with $11.39 at the day his hiring was introduced.

Robert Herman Benmosche became born in Brooklyn, big apple, on might also 29, 1944. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Alfred college in Alfred, big apple, in 1966, in which he performed on the soccer crew. After university, he served as a lieutenant inside the U.S. navy signal Corps from 1966 to 1968.

Banker, broking

Benmosche labored in generation at Arthur D. Little Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based control consulting company, earlier than joining Chase ny bank in 1979. From 1982 to 1995, he turned into at securities broker PaineWebber Inc., where he rose to govt vice chairman and helped guide its acquisition of Kidder Peabody & Co.

He moved to MetLife Inc. in 1995 as government vice chairman, turning into president and CEO about two years later. Benmosche transformed the ny-based employer into the largest publicly traded U.S. life insurer from a mutual owned via customers.

After retiring in 2006 from MetLife, Benmosche moved to Croatia, wherein he owned a villa with a 12.5-acre winery and had a group of hundreds of bottles of wine. Benmosche wanted to bring Zinfandel wine-making again to Croatia, wherein the variety may have originated, he advised Wine Spectator mag in December 2009.

Croatia’s appeal

“human beings say, why might you want to live in Croatia?” stated Benmosche, who stated he spent 1/2 the yr there throughout his retirement. “because it’s a stunning vicinity and it’s secure.”

He said he to begin with turned down the AIG task due to the lambasting that his predecessor, Liddy, had acquired during congressional hearings in March and may 2009 regarding employee bonuses.

“I wasn’t interested in this task, I’ve got to inform you, I said ‘no’ three times,” Benmosche told staff at an August 2009 meeting. “I stated to all the key humans in Washington I met over the past two weeks, ‘Why in God’s name would you want me to be your CEO? I’m indignant about the whole lot you probably did. There isn’t something you probably did proper.'”

One reason he took the AIG post turned into to assist restore self assurance within the insurance enterprise, Benmosche told workforce.

“It affects me individually because, pretty frankly, I nonetheless were given lots of MetLife inventory,” he stated. “And if i will enhance the whole lot here, i'm able to make some money here, and i'm able to make a number of money there, too. and then i'm able to upload greater vineyards.”

largest Loss

In 2008, AIG said the largest quarterly loss in U.S. company records and published almost $100 billion in internet losses that yr, fueled by bets on subprime mortgage securities. AIG become deemed with the aid of the Treasury department a “systemically extensive failing institution” and became the handiest organisation to receive bailout budget thru a facility created for such firms.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said AIG’s bailout, an afternoon after the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., had made him “extra indignant” than any other episode inside the financial disaster. The commercial enterprise was corresponding to a hedge fund “connected to a large and strong insurance organisation,” Bernanke stated.

In his first month at AIG, Benmosche drew complaint for vacationing in Croatia. In a town hall meeting with AIG staff that month, Benmosche stated ridding AIG of government oversight.

Bailed-out corporations need to “begin rebuilding themselves, with out authorities law, government manage, government choices on the way you pay human beings,” Benmosche stated. “If we do it the proper way, I’m convinced we can restore credibility in our industry, as well as for our usa.”

Washington ‘Crazies’

Liddy’s members of the family with Congress and federal regulators was testy. He was two times grilled via lawmakers over bonuses paid all through his tenure. Benmosche said he would go away running with Congress to Golub, the previous CEO of yank specific Inc., whilst he focused on operations and determined which gadgets to maintain.

Golub “goes to run interference for me in Washington due to the fact, I’ve got to tell you, i will’t be strolling the commercial enterprise right here and coping with all those crazies down in Washington,” Benmosche said on Aug. eleven, 2009, including, “absolutely, they’re no longer. They’re very excellent, sophisticated humans. Vote for them. Please. And provide them your cash.”

Benmosche also criticized then-new york lawyer popular Andrew Cuomo on Aug. 11, 2009, over Cuomo’s dealing with of an advantage probe of the employer, pronouncing he “doesn’t deserve to be in authorities.” AIG issued an apology on Benmosche’s behalf and stated that the executive was responding to people’ situation approximately harassment amid the bonus furor.

Welcomes Regulators

over time, Benmosche shifted his stance towards federal regulators. In 2012, Benmosche stated AIG wouldn’t contest a designation as a systemically essential monetary institution, subjecting it to more oversight.

“In fact, we welcome supervision via the Federal Reserve,” he stated in a letter to regulators.

Golub, who joined AIG in 2009, weeks before Benmosche have become CEO, resigned as chairman on July 14, 2010. Benmosche regularly clashed with Golub and pushed for his ouster after feuding with him over the stalled divestiture of AIA group Ltd., AIG’s main Asia department.

Golub become succeeded by way of Miller, an AIG director who have become the organization’s sixth chairman seeing that 2005. Miller oversaw the bankruptcy of car-components provider Delphi Corp. and helped Chrysler Corp. go back to profitability.

Benmosche’s approach turned into to postpone asset income until better expenses might be garnered, telling personnel he changed into “appalled” at stress from U.S. regulators to liquidate the organisation.

Asset sales

AIG has retrenched the derivatives unit accountable for housing-marketplace losses. The enterprise has offered greater than $75 billion worth of groups and property on account that 2008, consisting of a U.S. patron lender, a Russian bank, an Israeli loan insurer and its big apple headquarters building. The sale of aircraft-leasing commercial enterprise worldwide rent Finance Corp. in may 2014 turned into the last principal divestiture, AIG stated at the time.

amongst the most important offers that helped AIG repay the rescue had been the $sixteen billion sale of Asian insurer American existence coverage Co. to MetLife and the divestiture of AIA in four public offerings that raised a complete of $35 billion.

The U.S. wound down the rescue via six percentage income after owning as lots as 92 percentage of AIG. Following the final sale in December 2012, the Treasury department had recouped greater than $two hundred billion, giving the U.S. a earnings of approximately $22.7 billion at the bailout.

fitness Disclosure

“We are not going to forestall right here and take a rest,” Benmosche wrote to personnel in a memo on the time. “We aren't at the finish line.”

On Oct. 25, 2010, weeks after saying AIG’s street map to independence, Benmosche told group of workers that he had all started treatment for cancer, without disclosing the sort, and said he’d step down in 2012. Benmosche later determined he’s live on until the first area of 2015, then moved up his departure to August 2014.

simply prior to leaving AIG, Benmosche sat for an interview with Bloomberg tv’s Betty Liu at his Croatian villa. He informed Liu that he felt he’d finished his goals for AIG, and defined his selection to leave by way of citing recommendation his mom once gave him.

“My mother informed me, ‘Don’t wait too lengthy,’ and i’m satisfied I didn’t wait too long,” Benmosche said. “She stated, ‘stay your life when you’re healthful enough to stay it.'”