Ed Liddy

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Ed Liddy
Born Edward Michael Liddy
(1946-01-28) January 28, 1946 (age 78)
New Brunswick, New Jersey
Education B.A. 1968
MBA 1972
Alma mater Catholic University of America
George Washington University
Occupation CEO
Employer AIG
Title CEO and Chairman of AIG
Term September 2008 – August 2009
Predecessor Robert B. Willumstad
Successor Robert Benmosche
Board member of 3M and The Kroger Company
Signature
Signature of Edward Liddy.svg

Edward Michael "Ed" Liddy (born January 28, 1946) was the chairman and chief executive officer of American International Group (AIG) from 2008 to 2009 during the late-2000s financial crisis.

Early life

Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Liddy was educated at the Trinity-Pawling School for Boys (Founder's League), located on the hills overlooking Pawling, New York. He graduated high school in 1964 from the Clearwater Central Catholic High School, along with its first graduating class of 27 students. At the time, he and his mother lived near downtown Clearwater, Florida. He holds a B. A. degree from The Catholic University of America (1968)[1] and holds an MBA from George Washington University (1972).

Career

Liddy worked for Ford Motor Company until 1981 when he joined Searle. From 1986 to 1988. Liddy was executive vice president of ADT, Inc.[2] In 1988 he moved to Sears[3] and then in 1994 to Allstate where he was chief operating officer until 1999 and chairman, chief executive officer and president until 2005.[2]

Liddy was on the board of Goldman Sachs from 2003 to 2008, when he resigned to become CEO of AIG.[4] He was selected by Henry Paulson for both roles.[5]

AIG

Liddy became CEO of AIG in September 2008, succeeding Robert B. Willumstad.[6] As CEO of AIG, Liddy received a salary of just $1,[7][8][9][10] but also received $460,000 to cover "housing, travel, taxes and legal fees".[11]

Liddy garnered national headlines in October 2008 for defending a controversial $440,000 AIG retreat for top-performing insurance salesmen at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California. The retreat, which was held shortly after the U.S. government rescued AIG from insolvency with $84 billion in loans, included $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals and $23,000 for the spa. In testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee, Liddy stated that such retreats "are standard practice in our industry."[12] During the U.S. presidential debate on October 7, 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama mentioned the retreat and said, "The Treasury should demand that money back and those executives should be fired."[13]

In light of the AIG bonus payments controversy, Liddy urged employees to return $165m issued in bonuses to them,[14] suggesting doing the "right thing"[15] and returning at least part of the bonus is preferable to legal action, noting “honoring contractual commitments is at the heart of what we do in the insurance business.”[16] While Mr Liddy called the bonuses “distasteful” in an appearance in the House of Representatives,[17] it later transpired that Liddy had accelerated more than a quarter of AIG Financial Products bonuses by three months, which Jake DeSantis described as “hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts ‘distasteful’.”[18]

Liddy owned 27,129 shares in Goldman Sachs, at the time worth just over $3 million.[19] In April 2009 members of Congress called for Liddy to sell these shares, as they created a conflict of interest due to Goldman Sachs' receipt of bailout money.[20]

Liddy announced on May 21, 2009 that he would resign as AIG Chairman and CEO when replacements were found, suggesting that the two roles be split.[21] In August 2009, Robert Benmosche took over as CEO and Harvey Golub as chairman.[22]

After AIG

As of September 13, 2011, Liddy is on the board of directors for 3M[23] and Boeing.[24] He is chairman of ServiceMaster[25] and a partner of private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.[26][27]

References

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  8. ↑ AIG praised for freezing executives' salaries By Greg Farrell in New York, Tuesday Nov 25 2008 18:30 from the Financial Times
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Business positions
Preceded by Chairman of AIG
2008-09		 Succeeded by
Harvey Golub
Preceded by CEO of AIG
2008-09		 Succeeded by
Bob Benmosche
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