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A LOOK BACK ‘It hasn’t been easy, and goodness knows, it hasn’t been pretty,’ former CEO Liddy wrote in a letter to AIG employees. |
Liddy leaves AIG, returns to retirement with $1, ‘a few bruises’
NEW YORK - American International Group’s former CEO Edward Liddy, who returned the bailed-out insurer to profitability, had “no idea’’ what he was in for when he joined the firm, he wrote to employees.
Liddy, 63, left retirement to run AIG in September after the New York-based firm needed US support to prevent its collapse, a rescue that ballooned to $182.5 billion. He endured two congressional hearings and was the face of the insurer during a period in which employees received death threats and AIG reported the biggest loss of any US corporation. He worked for a salary of $1.
“I will return to retirement with $1, a few bruises, and a feeling of hard-earned accomplishment,’’ Liddy said in a letter dated Friday. “I do not intend to linger or second-guess new management or policy makers.’’
Liddy oversaw the beginning of efforts to repay the government by selling assets. When the CEO failed to find buyers as quickly as expected, he persuaded the US to expand the bailout three times. Lawmakers, including Representative Elijah Cummings, grew frustrated with the costs to prop up AIG and the funds that flowed to banks that traded with the insurer.
Liddy, who was previously CEO of Allstate Corp., had been on the board of Goldman Sachs Group last year when he was asked to take over at AIG. He stepped down as a director of the New York-based bank after being named AIG’s CEO.
“Truth be told, I had no idea what I was in for when I accepted this assignment, but I am glad that I came,’’ Liddy said. “It hasn’t been easy, and goodness knows, it hasn’t been pretty.’’
Liddy said he plans to “pass on the lessons of this extraordinary phase of American financial history’’ to future business leaders.
“America has lost confidence in corporations,’’ he said. “Restoring that confidence is the first step toward regaining our footing in the global economy.’’
Liddy, in the letter, called the dismantling of AIG a “rebirth’’ because the company has new board members and a new CEO, Robert Benmosche. The former CEO of MetLife Inc. started yesterday.
AIG posted second-quarter net income of $1.82 billion on Friday, the insurer’s first profit in seven periods. A spokesman for AIG declined to comment. Attempts to reach Liddy weren’t immediately successful.
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