The Man Who Saved AIG

Found via Canadian Value Investor.

One day you may be lucky enough to rent "Bobby's Cabana," a well-appointed cottage on a lavish estate just north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. It's where the estate's owner, Bobby, really gets to be Bobby -- innkeeper, wine maker, cancer survivor, restructuring expert, and corporate chieftain. And it's from there that Robert Benmosche (pronounced BEN-mo-SHAY) lights up the phone lines for several weeks a year as the CEO of insurance behemoth American International Group (ticker: AIG).

These are good times for Benmosche, 68. He recently marked his third anniversary as CEO of AIG. Second-quarter earnings jumped 27%, and last week, the company's largest shareholder, the U.S. government, whittled its stake down to 53%. Benmosche says he believes that a full exit might be possible by the end of 2013. That's an especially impressive feat given that the company was considered toxic as recently as two years ago.

How Benmosche restored a wounded AIG to health after the biggest bailout of the financial crisis is one of the great management stories of the new century: A tale of rallying the troops, intelligently downsizing, and managing often rocky relations with Washington.

Genial and expansive, Benmosche spoke to Barron's from his cozy sitting room at the company's executive offices near Wall Street. The discussion touched many subjects, including his belief that long work lives are inevitable, given the burden on governments of aging populations: "The 20th century was about technology, from airplane engines to computers. This one is about how you deal with an aging world," he says. The lengthier work lives, he says, mean economies will grow bigger.

And having grown up in a family that was deeply mired in debt, Benmosche has a roll-up-your-sleeves ethos. Persistently high unemployment notwithstanding, he stubbornly insists there are opportunities in this country: "The question is whether it's a job you feel is becoming to you. My belief is to get something and work your way up from there, take it until you get something better."