On June 15 the board of American International Group Inc. (AIG), the financially troubled insurance giant, forced its chairman, Martin Sullivan, to step down and appointed Robert Willumstad chief executive. AIG’s board expects Willumstad’s long experience at Citigroup Inc. will enable him to restore financial strength to AIG’s extensive operations. Willumstad said that by September he would have a strategy for AIG, identifying the businesses the company should retain. Sullivan, a longtime executive of AIG, was named CEO in 2005 and his standing was undermined after the company recorded the two largest quarterly losses in its history. Stephen Bollenback, a director supported by investor Eli Broad and other prominent disgruntled shareholders, is to be named lead director. Bollenback, the former chief executive of Hilton Hotels Corp. and a former chief financial officer at Walt Disney Co., was appointed to the board in January.

June 17, 2008