Good for the Money: The Legacy of Bob Benmosche and AIG

Join LeBow’s Institute for Strategic Leadership for a unique panel that will discuss the development of Bob Benmosche, a leader who would succeed as the CEO of AIG and pay back the 182 billion dollars of TARP bailout money.

In 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis, AIG - the American insurance behemoth - was sinking fast. It was the peg upon which the nation hung its ire and resentment during the financial crisis: the pinnacle of Wall Street arrogance and greed. When Bob Benmosche climbed aboard as CEO, it was widely assumed that he would go down with his ship. In mere months, he turned things around, pulling AIG from the brink of financial collapse and restoring its profitability. Before three years were up, AIG had fully repaid its staggering debt to the U.S. government - with interest.

Good for the Money is an unyielding leader’s memoir of a career spent fixing companies through thoughtful, unconventional strategy. With his brash, no-holds-barred approach to the job, Benmosche restored AIG’s employee morale and good name. His is a story of perseverance, told with refreshing irreverence in unpretentious terms.

Book signing available for Good for the Money: My Fight to Pay Back America by Peter Marks and Valerie Hendy.

5:00 p.m. Discussion 6:00 p.m. Reception

Moderator: Chris Stigall brings a contemporary brand of opinionated talk and humor to mornings on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT. He is consistently ranked as one of the ‘Top 100 most important talk radio hosts in America’ by Talkers Magazine. Prior to his arrival in Philadelphia, Chris’s radio career began in Kansas City where he worked on-air in various music formats before transitioning to talk radio. Chris’s diverse background includes an internship with the Late Show with David Letterman in New York and serving as a representative and press assistant to United States Congressman Sam Graves (MO-6).
Chris regularly addresses various Philadelphia civic clubs and political action committees. He occasionally appears as a guest on CNN, Fox News, Fox Business and The Blaze. His radio interviews regularly make national news on prominent websites like the Drudge Report. He also contributes as a guest columnist for publications such as Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, American Spectator, Human Events and Philadelphia Magazine.

Panelists:

Valerie Hendy was AIG’s global head of corporate citizenship, overseeing the company’s philanthropic efforts. Valerie worked with Mr. Benmosche for four years, from 2010 until his retirement in 2014, writing speeches and letters to employees. Before joining AIG, she worked at Citi, Standard & Poor’s, GE Capital, IBM and Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. Valerie holds an M.A. In journalism from New York University.

Peter Marks is a staff writer for the Washington Post and the paper’s chief theater critic. He previously was a reporter covering theater, culture and politics for The New York Times and was a member of the Newsday team that won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting. He holds a degree in English from Yale University.

Nehama Benmosche is a rabbi at Machar: The Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism and is a resident of Lafayette Hill, PA. As Bob Benmosche’s daughter, she shares his drive for innovation and creativity, general desire to execute “the impossible”, and has taken those passions to another legacy of the Benmosche family as a rabbi of a liberal Jewish community.