Marsh & McLennan to Replace CEO Cherkasky
Today New York-based insurance brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. announced that it will be replacing its chief executive Michael Cherkasky following a year of disappointing results.
A search is underway for a replacement after the company's board determined that a change in leadership would best enable it to move forward.
"Marsh & McLennan's financial performance in 2007 has fallen far short of our expectations," said Stephen Hardis, the non-executive chairman of the board in a statement.
The board would oversee the company's portfolio of businesses, which include human resources, management and risk consulting as well as reinsurance and would "evaluate strategies to enhance shareholder value."
Cherkasky, 57, a former prosecutor tapped in 2004 to negotiate an $850 million settlement with Eliot Spitzer, proved less successful at restoring the $11.7 billion in market value wiped out by the New York attorney general's bid-rigging probe. The shares fell 5.8 percent since Cherkasky took charge through yesterday, while No. 2 broker Aon Corp. added 145 percent and third-ranked Willis Group Holdings Ltd. climbed 1.7 percent.
"He was not the right man for the job,'' said Stanley Nabi, who helps oversee about $8 billion at New York-based Silvercrest Asset Management Group and who sold most of his Marsh & McLennan shares in the past two years. "He cleaned up the company there legally, but he's not an insurance person.''
Published on December 21, 2007
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