American businessman
A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...
who was chairman of the Allstate Corporation from 1999 to 2008.
In September 2008, at the request of the secretary of the
U.S. Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
, Liddy agreed to serve as interim chairman and chief executive officer of American International Group, Inc. (AIG). His placement in the role was one of numerous government actions to provide stability to U.S. financial firms during the
global financial crisis
Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003
* ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007
* ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989
* ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015
* Bruno ...
. Liddy requested a salary of just $1 a year.
Early life
Liddy was born in
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in and the seat of government of Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. After the death of his father in 1959, he moved to
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a popu ...
, with his mother and older sister. He was a member of the first graduating class of
Clearwater Central Catholic High School
Clearwater Central Catholic High School is a private college preparatory school for grades 9 through 12 and located in Clearwater, Florida, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1962, the school enrolls approximately 500 st ...
in 1964. He earned his bachelor's degree from the
Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...
(1968) and MBA from
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, presi ...
(1972).
Career
Liddy began his career as a financial analyst with
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Preside ...
, in 1979, eventually becoming
CFO
The chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization that is assigned the primary responsibility for managing the company's finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financ ...
. Upon the sale of Searle to
Monsanto
The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...
, he served from 1986 to 1988 as executive vice president and a member of the board of directors of ADT, Inc.
Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Upon the sale of ADT, Liddy joined Sears in April 1988 and served in a variety of financial and senior operating roles before being named chief financial officer in February 1992. In that role, he was the architect and implementer of the successful restructuring of Sears, which involved breaking the company into numerous public companies (
Sears
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
Dean Witter
Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives (ranking ...
) and selling non-core assets (
Homart Development Company
Homart Development Company, a Chicago-based subsidiary of Sears, was one of the largest builders of shopping centers and malls in the United States from 1959 to 1995.
Company history
As retail development in the United States shifted away from d ...
,
Coldwell Banker
Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is an American real estate franchise owned by Anywhere Real Estate, with headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. It was founded in 1906 in San Francisco, and has approximately 3000 offices in 49 countries and territ ...
Residential Broker, Sears Mortgage and Sears Savings Bank). He led the 1993 initial public offerings of Dean Witter/Discover and Allstate, two of the largest ever IPOs at that time. He also led the 1995 spinoff of Allstate from Sears.
The Allstate Corporation
After the IPO of Allstate, Liddy held positions of increasing responsibility with the Allstate Corporation, the largest publicly held personal lines property and casualty insurer in America, from 1994 to 2008. He served as chairman from January 1999 until his retirement in April 2008. He was chief executive officer from January 1999 until December 2006, and president and chief operating officer from August 1994 to December 1998. Under Liddy's leadership, the company was streamlined by exiting non-core businesses and the company expanded its distribution system beyond its traditional agency force to reach customers through the internet and call centers. During Liddy's tenure as president and then CEO, Allstate's market value more than tripled, from $11 billion (December 31, 1994) to over $40 billion (December 31, 2006).
American International Group
In September 2008, at the request of the Secretary of the
U.S. Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...
, Liddy agreed to serve as interim chairman and chief executive officer of
American International Group
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...
, Inc. (AIG). His placement in the role was one of numerous government actions to provide stability to U.S. financial firms during the global financial crisis. He requested a salary of just $1 per year.
The restructuring of AIG that Liddy took on was one of the largest in U.S. corporate history. He and the AIG team developed a strategy to stabilize the company and its $1.2 trillion balance sheet; keep the company out of bankruptcy; repay with interest all money invested in the company by various U.S. government entities, which eventually totaled $182 billion; and keep the remaining business that would comprise AIG vital and competitive.
The government bailout of AIG garnered national headlines in May 2009 when AIG, with the concurrence of the U.S. Treasury and
Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...
, paid earned bonuses to employees of its Financial Products Business, determining the payments were contractual obligations. Liddy noted that "honoring contractual commitments is at the heart of what we do in the insurance business." At the same time, he urged the employees who received $165 million in bonuses to "do the right thing" and return at least part of their bonus.
Once the company was stabilized, a viable plan in place to repay the government assistance and a management team partially in place to execute the strategy, Liddy announced on May 21, 2009, he would resign as AIG chairman and CEO when replacements were found. He suggested the two roles be split. In August 2009, Robert Benmosche took over as CEO and
Harvey Golub
Harvey Golub (born April 16, 1939) is an American businessman.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, Golub attended Cornell University and received a Bachelor of Science from the New York University.
He worked as a senior partner with McKinsey ...
as chairman.
By December 2012, AIG had fully repaid the entire $182 billion, plus required interest, invested in the company by the government.
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC
Liddy served as a partner in the private equity investment firm
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is an American private equity company. It is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world. Founded in 1978, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, repre ...
, LLC from April to September 2008 and from January 2010 to December 2015.
Board of directors roles
Liddy serves on the board of directors of
Abbott Laboratories
Abbott Laboratories is an American multinational medical devices and health care company with headquarters in Abbott Park, Illinois, United States. The company was founded by Chicago physician Wallace Calvin Abbott in 1888 to formulate known dr ...
,
AbbVie Inc.
AbbVie is an American publicly traded biopharmaceutical company founded in 2013. It originated as a spin-off of Abbott Laboratories.
History
On October 19, 2011, Abbott Laboratories announced its plan to separate into two publicly traded compani ...
and the Forum Club of Southwest Florida. He previously served on the board of directors of
3M Company
3M (originally the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company) is an American multinational conglomerate operating in the fields of industry, worker safety, U.S. health care, and consumer goods. The company produces over 60,000 products unde ...
Liddy has been actively involved in a number of philanthropic and civic endeavors. He serves as a life trustee for
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
. He is also life trustee and chairman emeritus of
Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is a nationally ranked academic medical center located on Northwestern University’s Chicago campus in Streeterville, Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship campus for Northwestern Medicine and the primary ...
in Chicago, a life trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and a life trustee and former national chairman of the
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a national organization of local chapters which provide voluntary after-school programs for young people. The organization, which holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code, h ...
. He served as chairman of the Civic Committee of the
Commercial Club of Chicago
The Commercial Club of Chicago is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) social welfare organization founded in 1877 with a mission to promote the social and economic vitality of the metropolitan area of Chicago.
History
The Commercial Club was founded in 1877 ...
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was est ...