Robert Benmosche, the chief executive of insurance giant AIG, said he is stepping down this weekend after learning he has less than a year to live.
Benmosche, 70, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, said he was given nine to 12 months to live in May, he told Bloomberg TV.
The CEO said he was stepping down sooner than planned as his health declined. He was expected to exit in early 2015.
“I said [to the board], I’m not going to play the odds, and I think the changes need to be made now not later, so let’s accelerate my retirement,” Benmosche said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Betty Liu at his house in Croatia.
“They say I’m stable, which is a big word, because I wasn’t stable for the last six months,” he added.
The company announced in June that Peter Hancock would succeed Benmosche as president and CEO.
Benmosche rose to the top job five years ago after the government bailed out the New York-based insurer to the tune of $85 billion — one of the most controversial decisions of the financial crisis.
AIG repaid the bailout funds, while the government made a profit of nearly $23 billion from interest and the sale of its stake in the firm.
Benmosche was an outspoken defender of the crisis-era bailouts but criticized efforts to rein in banker pay. He compared the public backlash against Wall Street bonuses to lynchings in the Deep South during the Civil Rights Era.