During a rainstorm in Washington in early 2009, amid the furor over Wall Street’s post-bailout bonuses, an American International Group employee pulled out an umbrella that had the insurer’s name on it. “Somebody came by, grabbed the umbrella and broke it,” said AIG Chief Executive Robert Benmosche, who added that the attacker told the employee to engage in a sexual act impossible to perform on oneself. [Reuters]
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Something you’ve probably picked up on over the last year or so is that Robert Benmosche? Is no one’s bitch. Not the market’s bitch, not Treasury’s bitch, not Andrew Cuomo’s bitch, and definitely not cancer’s bitch. At times when others would’ve rolled over and taken it, ‘Mosche told them where they could go. So it should come as no surprise that in the face of the unfortunate news of his illness, Benmosche has not only pledged to keep at it with the insurer, but not let a little c-word sideline him when it comes to keeping fit. He covered this and other topics in a memo to employees this morning.
Benmosche Memo [PDF]
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Bobby Benmosche, celebrating the fact that he’s survived an entire year to the day at AIG, an achievement no one saw coming. [WSJ]
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Robert Benmosche has a vineyard in Croatia take care of and the finest bathroom fixtures money can buy. And it would be nice to tend to his grapes and enjoy some time on the can without having to worry about the company he’s been tasked with turning around, and the government breathing down his neck. He’s threatened to leave before and if he did now, people probably woudln’t give him too much shit, since it’s what every AIG CEO does anyway. Tradition and whatnot. But he’s promised his little workers that despite the fact that he honestly cannot take Ken Feinberg being such a god damn nag, and he’d be a lot happier just taking off, Daddy’s no deadbeat. Today he reaffirmed that commitment.
Benmosche will “be around for a year or two more, and then after that the question would be working with the board on how best to deal with succession,” he said. “We are doing that now, as well as in the future.”
Does he have a giant wall-sized calendar with a star marking his last day in 2011? Is the best part of his day crossing it off with an X, bringing him closer and closer to freedom? Does he keep a packed suitcase in the back of his trunk and staff a first year with keeping the motor running during business hours? You betcha. But for now he’s sticking it out.
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Today the Journal has a story examining the effects of absentee CEOs, particularly those running some of our nation’s shittiest bailed out companies. Though there is the argument that these firms will never learn to stand on their own feet unless we stop coddling them, some feel the absence of daddy chief execs hurts employee morale, and so on and so forth. What does AIG commander-in-chief Robert Benmosche have to say about that? Shove it up your ass. As previously stated by Bobby himself, he can do just as good a job remotely in Croatia, where he has grapes to tend to and the finest bathrooms money can buy to take advantage of as he can in lower Manhattan. Also? He’ll be damned if he’s gonna fork over extra money to the government when Ken Feinberg is already raping his employees blind.
If Mr. Benmosche is physically present in New York for more than 183 days during a year, his world-wide income would be subject to New York taxes. Mr. Benmosche has the highest pay package—valued at up to $10.5 million annually—among bailed-out U.S. companies that fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. pay czar…The 65-year-old remains a resident of Florida, a state that doesn’t impose personal income tax, and he has no intention of changing his residency, according to a person familiar with his thinking.
You don’t like that? He’s got a teabag with your name on it.
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