NEW YORK: Edward M. Liddy took the helm of American International Group Inc out of a sense of patriotic duty and was rewarded with public scoldings in Congress and a salary of $1 a year.
Now he is stepping down, with no severance package.
Controversy followed him throughout his tumultuous eight-month tenure, but he says he has no regrets about having come out of retirement to take the job, which was always to have been a short-term stewardship.
On Sept. 18, as AIG teetered on the brink of collapse, Liddy, 63, was appointed executive director of the insurance giant.
Soon after he became CEO, AIG received $85 billion from the government, which helped it avoid bankruptcy, days after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc had failed.
The government pressed the insurer to sell assets to pay back the funds, but selling assets after Lehman's collapse -- when markets globally were tanking and financing was impossible to secure -- proved difficult.
"In accepting the stewardship of AIG at the request of the U.S. government, Mr. Liddy took on one of the most challenging jobs in the American financial system today," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement. "He shouldered this burden out of a strong sense of duty and patriotism."
But some analysts say Liddy's handling of sensitive matters -- such as the millions of dollars the company paid in bonuses -- made AIG's predicament even worse.
In March, after AIG had accepted additional government support, the company handed out $165 million of employee bonuses. AIG had contractually guaranteed those bonuses last year, but after the company disclosed the payouts, public ire against AIG intensified, and it still has not subsided.
Earlier this month, popular blog Consumerist declared AIG "Worst Company in America."
Sean Egan, co-founder of rating agency Egan-Jones Rating Co, said: "Liddy doesn't have responsibility for getting the company into the mess, but he bears responsibility for some of the actions taken since the collapse."
In April, Liddy came under fire for his ownership of more than $3 million of shares in Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which has received money from AIG as a collateral against trades. He also served on the board of Goldman, but resigned soon after becoming AIG's CEO.
Angered with his stock holdings in Goldman, one member of Congress went so far as to demand Libby's resignation.
He was twice hauled before Congress to be upbraided over a variety of AIG issues. Liddy said he understand the populist anger in the current economic climate but admitted: "It is difficult to be the recipient of that kind of abuse when I am on the side of the taxpayer, brought in to help."
The controversy was an abrupt change for a man widely respected in the Chicago area as an upstanding businessman.
After 14 years with Allstate in Northbrook, Illinois, Libby retired last year and was spending time with his wife, three children and five grandchildren when he was called to duty by the government.
"He entered a troubled situation with potential risk," said Marshall Front, chairman of the asset manager Front Barnett Associates LLC, in Chicago, who said Liddy was well known in Chicago financial circles. "It was a selfless act, made during a time of great national distress."
After his appointment, Liddy became the third man to hold the top job at AIG in as many months. AIG was buckling under the pressure of mounting mortgage losses from bets taken by its financial products unit.
He joined Allstate in 1994 and was the architect of the company's initial public offering and eventual spin-off from Sears, Roebuck and Co in 1995. He served as president and chief operating officer from 1994 to 1998, chairman and chief executive officer from 1999 to 2006 and chairman since January 2007.
After Liddy was appointed to head AIG in September, his successor at Allstate, Tom Wilson, offered praise upon in a statement, calling him a "brilliant, strong leader."
"Ed undoubtedly is the right person to lead AIG through these difficult times," Wilson said. "I worked alongside Ed for 15 years and am not surprised that he would step forward to take on this important challenge."
"I absolutely would do it again," Liddy told Reuters. "I think we are in a much better position than we were, and I'm comfortable turning the reins over to the next person."