Management Turnover as Change Agent

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

AIG's Newest CEO in Trouble?

PEhub.com picks up a story in the Baltimore Sun in which the head of AIG’s newest CEO is called for.  According to the story, Maryland Congressman, Elijah E. Cummings,

… called yesterday for the resignation of American International Group’s top executive after news reports of another resort hotel event involving employees from the giant insurance firm.

Cummings has emerged as a prominent critic of AIG, which received a revised, $152 billion federal bailout package this week. The Maryland congressman was responding to a report by an Arizona television station that AIG executives participated in a recent training session for financial planners at a Phoenix resort.

AIG called the news accounts “misleading” and defended the conference as a legitimate business event for 150 independent financial planners. It said AIG’s expenses were “minimal” and that unnamed sponsors and the financial planners themselves paid 90 percent of the cost.

Edward Liddy, who was selected as AIG’s new CEO at the same time that the government bailout of AIG had been announced, finds himself in a tricky situation.  Appointed by the U.S. government (Hank Paulson) he is not yet at risk for his position but he needs to find a way to stay out the news for problems such as these.  AIG has far bigger fish to fry and cannot afford distractions of any kind.

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