Paying Tribute

The industry saw the passing of two of its best known and respected leaders in the past month: Liam McGee, former CEO and executive chairman at The Hartford, and Robert Benmosche, former CEO of MetLife and American International Group.

Both men took over companies in need of strong leadership and delivered.

McGee, an Irish-born banker and insurance executive who guided Hartford Financial Services Group through a taxpayer bailout and shored up the company’s finances, died at the age of 60 on Feb. 13 after a two-year battle with cancer.

Benmosche, who led AIG, once the world’s largest insurer, through the process of repaying its $182.3 billion taxpayer bailout, died at the age of 70 on Feb. 27 after fighting a long battle with lung cancer.

AIG announced in October 2010 that Benmosche had cancer, and the CEO said last August that he’d moved up his departure after his prognosis worsened. Benmosche was replaced by Peter Hancock on Sept. 1.

Benmosche came out of retirement in August 2009 to take over a troubled AIG, and led the insurer for half a decade. Benmosche became the most outspoken AIG chief since Maurice “Hank” Greenberg.

Greenberg was one of many to pay tribute to Benmosche. “If he had a fight, he’d fight,” Greenberg said to Bloomberg Television. “He stood up and fought for what he believed was right. That’s what a leader does, and he did that very well.”

Benmosche sold major divisions and focused on U.S. life insurance and global property/casualty coverage. He also sparred with government overseers, rebelled against U.S.-applied pay caps that he said limited the firm’s ability to retain staff, threatened to quit at least twice and succeeded in ousting then-Chairman Harvey Golub with a “him-or-me” showdown.

McGee ran Hartford as CEO from October 2009 through the middle of 2014, turning around an insurer that had been forced into a U.S. government rescue. Hartford plunged more than 90 percent from its 2007 peak to its low in March 2009 of $3.33 a share amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. It received the second-largest bailout package among insurers under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

McGee sold stock and debt to help The Hartford repay its $3.4 billion bailout, and retreated from life insurance and variable annuities to focus on property/casualty.

Chris Swift, The Hartford’s current chairman and CEO, highlighted McGee’s efforts in leading the transformation. “His vision of The Hartford as an exceptional company, celebrated for financial performance, character and customer value will continue to be a guiding principle for all of our colleagues,” Swift said.

The industry has lost two of its best whose legacies should inspire others.

Topics USA AIG