Alex Ferguson writes:

Martin Sullivan seemed to outdo Michael Cherkasky on the outgoing CEO stakes when it emerged that he had been given a $47m payout after "resigning" from his position atop floundering behemoth AIG.

I'm sorry - how much?

That's right, dear reader. $47m.

The SEC letter splits it up as such: "Mr. Sullivan’s arrangements include severance of $15m, a pro rata bonus of $4m and the continued vesting of outstanding equity and long-term cash awards valued at approximately $28m".

Well, we can expect the $28m to shrink if AIG's share price gets any worse, can't we?

Don't get us at Reinsurance wrong, though. After meeting Mr Sullivan not only at the World Insurance Forum in Dubai but also at his plush offices in New York City, Reinsurance decided that he is - or should we say was one of the insurance world's nicer CEOs.

Mind you, he might be the nicest guy in the world, but his credentials as a CEO took a monster hit while he was in charge at AIG.

During Sullivan's reign, AIG marked down around $23bn in unrealized assets thanks to subprime mark. And more markedly for AIG's shareholders, during his tenure AIG's share price dropped from around the $70 mark to around the $30 mark.

Not to say that he's in at fault for all of this, but if the manager of Manchester United - also the brilliantly-named Alex Ferguson - won half as many games now as he did five years ago, he'd probably have lost his job - and certainly without a $47m payoff!