Good for the Money

Starred review from February 22, 2016
In this no-holds-barred, captivating memoir, legendary CEO Benmosche recounts leading the remarkable turnaround of “too big to fail” insurance giant AIG and shares leadership lessons from a stellar career. As AIG’s fifth CEO in four years, Benmosche took on a seemingly impossible task and not only paid off the company’s staggering $183 billion debt but also settled the account with a $22.7 billion profit. A self-made man whose father died suddenly when he was a child, Benmosche asserts that the brash, blunt style he developed as a “rambunctious” kid fueled his successes at brokerage firm Paine Webber, as CEO of MetLife, and at AIG. He also credits the early lessons in customer service he received from his mother, who ran a Catskill hotel following his father’s death. Though Benmosche’s candid accounts of his personal and family life lend the book an intimate and honest feel, his often irreverent look at the AIG turnaround is the most entertaining section, complete with skirmishes with the media, struggles to transform the corporate culture, and pitched battles with government appointees and Congress. This is a definite must-read for anyone who wants to learn about the financial crisis, turnarounds in business, or leadership. Agent: Leah Spiro, Riverside Creative Management.

April 1, 2016
Called on to turn around the world's largest insurance company, AIG, which had greatly contributed to a near-complete breakdown of the financial system, former president and CEO Benmosche chronicles how he paid back what the country was owed. This is a story from the front lines by a corporate warrior who thought of himself as someone who "get[s] the job done"--and repeatedly proved that he could. Up against opponents and critics within the company, government, and other corporations, the author tells how he steered a course among those who wanted to liquidate divisions of AIG as quickly as possible, and he recounts the battles he had to fight to ensure the company's continued viability. He drew on executive experience gained from his previous leadership posts at MetLife, Paine Webber, and Chase Manhattan as well as a stint in the Army. This memoir complements former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's The Courage to Act (2015) and Maurice Greenberg's The AIG Story (2013), but Benmosche does not retell how the great crisis of 2007-2008 came about. His subject is the aftermath and what it took to save AIG from bankruptcy, restore viability, and repay "the astronomical $182 billion in bailout funds it owed the taxpayers." The author was recalled from retirement in the middle of the political crisis caused by the revelation that the company was sticking by its bonus policy even though "it had burned through four CEOs in four years." It did not take him long to discover that no one in the company really knew how big the financial problem was, the full "magnitude of the mess." The center was AIG's Financial Products division, which had sold the financial derivatives that nearly sank everything else. Ultimately, Benmosche overcame opposition from within and without as he brought the company back to solvency. A no-holds-barred account of what it takes to succeed at the highest levels.

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April 1, 2016

Benmosche was named CEO of AIG (American International Group) after the subprime mortgage calamity. AIG had received a $182 billion bailout from the federal government. From Benmosche's first day with the company in 2009, his goal was to defy the odds and pay back America in full. He didn't expect, however, to be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2010. Benmosche's journey to CEO was unconventional, but his experience in top positions at companies such as MetLife (he was chief executive when it went public) made him the man to put AIG on the right track. With coauthors Peter Marks (critic, Washington Post) and Valerie Hendy (senior director, internal communications and corporate social responsibility, AIG), he shares life lessons in language that is salty and down to earth. These include always telling the truth, playing the hand dealt you, remembering your core values, and having enough money tucked away that you can walk away if need be. He does his best to explain the convoluted problems of derivatives, recapitalization, and other economic complexities that led to AIG's downfall and its rise from the ashes. The author died in 2015--four years beyond his original prognosis. VERDICT For readers who enjoy biographies of men in business and what makes them tick and who don't mind the occasional four-letter expletive.--Bonnie A. Tollefson, Rogue Valley Manor Lib., Medford, OR

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2016
Benmosche's remarkably candid and compelling autobiography reveals how he, as the five-year CEO of AIG Insurance, stayed true to himself while rescuing the company from the precipice of bankruptcy from toxic, mortgage-based derivatives. (Sadly, Benmosche wasn't as lucky; he died in February 2015 of complications of lung cancer.) The narrative speaks in straightforward exposition and description, explaining the arcane nature of what the then-revised insurance company had invested in and, more important, what that meant. There are true-life, riveting discussions of TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program), stories of working with the Fed and the U.S. Treasury to recover after the taxpayers' $100-billion-plus bailout, and an inside look at the company's board of directors. Chapters also cover Benmosche's childhood, marriages, and business life with the same candor. Benmosche stuck to his beliefs and here shows readers what it means to be an authentic leader. I am not a liquidator. I don't liquidate things. I build them. Too bad there aren't many of his ilk today. Pair this with the movie, The Big Short, to understand why Benmosche was a one-of-a-kind executive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)