AIA Names New Chief Executive

Posted on Jul 19, 2010 by Sergio Ulloa (G+)

AIG has named former Prudential Chief Executive Mark Tucker as the head of AIA, the company's Asian life insurance business. The move sees the replacement of existing CEO Mark Wilson, who was instrumental in stabilizing the company when AIG was on the brink of collapse. While no comment was available from AIA with regards to the replacement of Wilson, reports from individuals familiar with the internal situation of the company say that Wilson had threatened to resign his post if the Prudential deal had gone forward. Despite the failure of the Prudential acquisition, Wilson's position placed him in a contrary position to that of AIA's upper management and may be a key reason for his replacement. The ousting of Wilson comes less than a week after AIG Chairman, Harvey Golub, resigned the company following a disagreement with AIG's CEO, Robert Benmosche. Analysts are speculating that the nomination of Mark Tucker as the head of AIA is the latest incident of Benmosche asserting his control over the AIG group of companies. Reports of heightened Boardroom friction following the collapse of the US$ 35.5 billion deal with Prudential have been rife, leading to concern about the company ahead of an estimated US$15 billion AIA IPO, scheduled for later this year. Benmosche is optimistic about the nomination of the new AIA Chief Executive, stating; "Mark Tucker has the public company experience, track record, relationships ½ that will help us accomplish our ambitious goals of not just taking a company of AIA's size and scope public, but building on this great platform for the long term to create Asia's pre-eminent, publicly traded insurance company." Mr Tucker is 53 years old. A certified chartered accountant, he initially joined Prudential in 1986 as part of Prudential Portfolio Managers Limited. Becoming Chief Executive for Prudential Corporation Asia in 1993, Mr Tucker held the post for a decade, during which time he evaluated the acquisition of AIA by Prudential. However, that deal ultimately fell through without the backing of AIG. Mr Tucker left the prudential group for HBOS Plc in 2004, where he took a position as the company's finance director. However, that position was short lived as he returned to Prudential in 2005 as CEO. Mr Tucker left Prudential in 2009 when he resigned from the company.