AIG Chairman In Line as Interim CEO Jumps Ship

American International Group Inc. has been forced to rethink its succession plans after its chairman Steve Miller announced he was taking a job as chief executive officer of an aviation manufacturer.

Miller was in line to serve as interim CEO should current CEO Robert Benmosche be unable to continue in his professional capacity. Benmosche has been undergoing cancer treatments since 2010.

Instead, Miller has accepted a job as CEO of Wichita, Kan.-based Hawker Beechcraft, which makes business, special-mission and trainer aircraft, according to its website.

Miller is currently continuing to serve as chairman of AIG's board. "Any change in that regard would be publicly disclosed," Mark Herr, a spokesman for AIG, said in a statement.

Herr also noted Benmosche has said in a recent interview that "he is feeling good, wants to stay on past this year and continues to work toward the taxpayers recovering their investment in AIG at a profit and returning the company to its pre-eminence as the most valuable insurance company in the world."

AIG, whose reputation was battered in the wake of the financial crisis and a subsequent bailout, has been working to re-establish its brand. On Jan. 24, AIG announced plans to merge the group benefit operations of two units into a new organization to be called AIG Benefit Solutions. Also, a pilot program, which had been slated to expire next month, has been so successful in marketing term life insurance under the AIG brand that the company is planning to expand it.

Both examples reflect a return to the AIG brand, a name the company had once attempted to distance itself from after the company's federal bailout in 2008 (Best's News Service, Jan. 24, 2012).

AIG's subsidiaries currently have a Best's Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent).

Shares of AIG were trading at $27.02 on the afternoon of Feb. 8, up 1.2% from the previous close.

(By Jeff Jeffrey, Washington Correspondent: [email protected])