AIG’s GC Casualty Of Activist Investor Pressure

Under pressure from activist investors Carl Icahn and John Paulson, AIG General Counsel Thomas Russo has decided to step down after six years. In December, AIG said it planned to cut nearly a quarter of its senior management – more than 300 positions – as a way to streamline operations and improve profitability. That came after Icahn and Paulson made separate public proposals to break the insurer up into three parts. Last month AIG added Paulson and a representative of Icahn to its board to avoid a proxy fight. Russo joined AIG in 2010 from Patton Boggs LLP, just after a massive government bailout. Prior to that, he was with Lehman Brothers until that firm’s bankruptcy in 2008.