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The Curse of Reinsurance magazine - II

Dear friend,

As the the curse of reinsurance magazine strikes again and the Sullivan-AIG aftershocks reverberate around the market, here is Alex Ferguson with a personal reflection after interviewing the great man only a few weeks ago:

Now that Martin Sullivan’s left AIG, I’ve been thinking about what it was like actually meeting the man in his plush office in New York City.

Although I’d never want to be seen dancing on the still-smoking grave of one of Britain’s biggest business figures, it’ll still nice to think that Reinsurance was perhaps the last magazine to interview Sullivan before he was ousted from the post this weekend.

It’s funny, because despite the monstrous problems going on around him, which ranged from $23bn of subprime writedowns to a very public war with former AIG architect Hank Greenberg, Sullivan was fresh-faced and remarkably chipper.

He enjoyed seeing Manchester United winning the Champions League – nothing like knowing that 200 million people were watching the AIG logo for nearly three hours eh? He was as proud of a picture of him holding a Super Bowl ring with Pittsburgh Steelers star Jerome Bettis.

What really got me in the interview – (which you’ll be able to read in this month’s copy of our magazine) – was that Sullivan seemed so determined to still be at the helm when the big ship called AIG finally turned around.

Unfortunately, his board had other ideas...

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