OMG- Shimeck is an ingesting guy- an accountant BUT not an Insurance Guy despite his Title. He has a B.S. in Accounting and a B.S. in Business Administration and an MBA. I’ve heard him speak- for over 45 minutes his only concern was Capital Surplus, allocation of Capital to Unederwriting units and getting a “reasonable rate of return on that Capital”… he never mentioned insurance! Is he a Banker or a provider of products that protects his customers? He is clueless! and couldn’t answer that question! He reminds me of the nitwits at GE that destroyed Employers Re for similar reasons- they didn’t understand Underwriting Cycles, nor Insurance Business Models etc …
Employers Re was a great company and we wrote a lot of business with them until the downfall. Very sad destruction of a good company. Hate seeing that happen anywhere
I partially agree. I’ll read the article again for further details in regard to your perspective, and may add to my comments below.
An underwriting cycle is composed of variable cash flow periods that an MBA should well be able to comprehend and appreciate regarding its importance in managing an insurance group.
With that said, it may be difficult for someone new to take bold steps to correct problems they don’t fully understand. Their ‘recent’ and ‘not too distant past’ instability in senior management, due to outside influences by regulators, politicians, and major shareholders on internal operations and management decisions, led to a situation where newbies couldn’t fix everything in need of repair.
Rob Schimeck is a great guy and really did a lot during the 2007 AIG ‘Crisis’ to calm and reassure employees and investors. He is admittedly an accounting guy and I don’t know how he would fare in a largely underwriting CEO responsibility (although that’s what his title is now)
That being said, AIG pretty much did it to itself starting with the Greenburg debacle.
OMG- Shimeck is an ingesting guy- an accountant BUT not an Insurance Guy despite his Title. He has a B.S. in Accounting and a B.S. in Business Administration and an MBA. I’ve heard him speak- for over 45 minutes his only concern was Capital Surplus, allocation of Capital to Unederwriting units and getting a “reasonable rate of return on that Capital”… he never mentioned insurance! Is he a Banker or a provider of products that protects his customers? He is clueless! and couldn’t answer that question! He reminds me of the nitwits at GE that destroyed Employers Re for similar reasons- they didn’t understand Underwriting Cycles, nor Insurance Business Models etc …
Employers Re was a great company and we wrote a lot of business with them until the downfall. Very sad destruction of a good company. Hate seeing that happen anywhere
I partially agree. I’ll read the article again for further details in regard to your perspective, and may add to my comments below.
An underwriting cycle is composed of variable cash flow periods that an MBA should well be able to comprehend and appreciate regarding its importance in managing an insurance group.
With that said, it may be difficult for someone new to take bold steps to correct problems they don’t fully understand. Their ‘recent’ and ‘not too distant past’ instability in senior management, due to outside influences by regulators, politicians, and major shareholders on internal operations and management decisions, led to a situation where newbies couldn’t fix everything in need of repair.
Rob Schimeck is a great guy and really did a lot during the 2007 AIG ‘Crisis’ to calm and reassure employees and investors. He is admittedly an accounting guy and I don’t know how he would fare in a largely underwriting CEO responsibility (although that’s what his title is now)
That being said, AIG pretty much did it to itself starting with the Greenburg debacle.