Crains New York - March 11, 2013 - (Page 4)
Team Bloomie
reunites to talk
rebuilding options
BY ANNIE KARNI
Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t
believe in seawalls. That much he
made clear after Superstorm Sandy.
“It would be nice if we could stop the
tides from coming in,” he said in
December. “But King Canute
couldn’t do it, and neither can we.”
Despite his citation of the 11thcentury Danish ruler to dismiss the
notion, the possibility of stormsurge barriers in New York Harbor is
alive and well in the administration,
which is preparing a master plan to
make the city storm-resilient. The
idea is “the elephant in the room,”
one administration official said, and
addressing it will be a major component of the report, due in May.
“All options are on the table and
will be evaluated in the report,” a
spokesman for the city’s Economic
Development Corp. said.
A vast number of recommendations is expected in the analysis,
which is likely to include a deep dive
into rebuilding the most affected areas—lower Manhattan; Staten Island; the Rockaways and Breezy
Point, Queens; and Red Hook and
Coney Island, Brooklyn—and citywide recommendations for dealing
with climate-related events.
Alumni consulted
An EDC spokesman said the
team has consulted with hundreds
of experts and community leaders as
part of its research. Notably, the administration has also tapped into its
deep bench of former officials now in
the private sector but still strongly
loyal to the city and their old boss.To
help craft its rebuilding master plan,
the city is getting the old band back
together. The Dan Doctoroff band,
to be exact.
Last month, a group of former
Bloomberg administration heavyweights,many who worked under the
former deputy mayor for economic
development and rebuilding, reconvened around a conference table to
discuss the post-Sandy road map.
IN THE
MARKETS
bloomberg news
by Aaron Elstein
Hank Greenberg:
comeback kid?
F
ive years after the epic collapse of American
International Group, and eight years after he was shoved
out the door of the insurance company that he built
and ruled with an iron fist, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is back.
This time, the executive is trying to build a new insurance
giant with many of the same people who worked for him at
AIG. Business, he proclaimed, is going very well indeed.
“I’m having a lot of fun,” said Mr. Greenberg at an
appearance last month at the Japan Society to discuss his
recent book, The AIG Story.
OK, wait a minute. A comeback for Mr. Greenberg? This is
4 | Crain’s New York Business | March 11, 2013
“There’s a lot of loyalty among
the old Doctoroff crew,” said a former administration source, especially among those who worked on the
city’s 2007 sustainability initiative.
Three now work in real estate,
whose interests are sure to be affected by the blueprint. James Whelan,
Mr.Doctoroff ’s former chief of staff,
is senior vice president of public affairs at the Real Estate Board of New
York; David Lombino, a former executive vice president at the city’s
Economic Development Corp., is
director of special projects at Two
Trees Management; and Ashley
Cotton,a former senior policy adviser, is director of external affairs at
Forest City Ratner Cos.
Adam Freed, a former deputy director of the city’s Office of LongTerm Planning and Sustainability
and now director of the Nature Conservancy’s Global Securing Water
Program at Columbia University,also
attended.Administration officials included Larry Blackmon, a deputy
parks commissioner, and Karen
Becker, a projects manager in Parks
Planning. Tokumbo Shobowale, the
city’s chief business operations offi-
the guy who in the mind of some is
the archvillain of the financial crisis, the man whose empire collapsed into the mother of all
bailouts. (Mr. Greenberg contends
AIG collapsed because his successors were inept.) This is the guy
who, after news of his suit against
the government hit in January,
moved The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart
to quip that he was writing his own
book, Don’t Buy Maurice Greenberg’s Stupid F—king Book (Because
It’s Going to Be Terrible).
By the way, Mr. Greenberg will
turn 88 years old in May. So while
it’s probably too late for Mr. Greenberg to rebuild what he had at AIG,
the man who portrays himself in his
book as a combination of James
Bond and Jamie Dimon is trying
anyway.
“He’s angry and out to prove a
point,” said Linda Lamel, a former
New York state insurance regulator
and former president of the College
of Insurance. “The government
took something away from him, and
now he is driven to take it back.”
The name of Mr.Greenberg’s enterprise, Starr Cos.,is not new—nor is
Mr.Greenberg new to it. Starr traces
its roots back to 1919, and Mr.
Greenberg ran it while he was also
building AIG. When Mr. Greenberg was thrown out by AIG’s board
in 2005 after an accounting scandal
and pressure from then-Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer,he turned his attention to Starr.In 2007,he acquired
an insurer from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway that was being wound
down, merged it with Starr, infused
it with more than $200 million in
cash and began building.
Starr bears more than a passing
resemblance to the old AIG. Its finance chief, Howard Smith, served as
chief financial officer at AIG under
Mr. Greenberg, and several heads of
Starr’s numerous subsidiaries are
also AIG alumni. Like AIG, the
company is global with a particular
focus on Asia. At the recent Japan
Society event, Mr. Greenberg emphasized he visited China and other Asian nations nine times last year
and plans to make at least four more
trips this year.
Privately held Starr doesn’t release financial results, but insurance
The ex-AIG
chief is ‘angry
and out to
prove a point’
research firm A.M. Best estimates the
group wrote $1 billion worth of
policies last year, and data filed by
certain subsidiaries with state insurance regulators offer a glimpse behind the curtain.
For example, back in 2008, Starr
Indemnity & Liability wrote less than
$20 million worth of net premiums.
But that business by 2011 had
grown to more than $400 million
and generated $20 million in pretax
operating income through the first
nine months of last year, compared
with $5 million in the year-earlier
period. This growth has come while
the property and casualty business
has stagnated, with net written premiums industrywide of $447 billion
in 2011, according to A.M. Best, the
same amount as in 2008.
While the public may still be fu-
bloomberg news
Dismissed by mayor,
seawalls get attention
cer, was also consulted.
At the highest level, Mr. Doctoroff himself is involved. The former
deputy mayor, who is president of
Bloomberg LP, confirmed via email
that he had advised the city informally on the post-Sandy plan.
The co-leader of the entire initiative is also an alumnus. Marc Ricks,
a former Doctoroff chief of staff, is
on a six-month leave from Goldman
Sachs to spearhead the Sandy plan
alongside Economic Development
Corp. President Seth Pinsky. It was
Mr. Ricks who called upon his former colleagues for their input.
Thirty full-time staffers are
working on the report, and public
outreach to elected officials has been
an important component. But assembling the alumni for a pro bono
advisory meeting highlights the degree to which Mr. Ricks and the
team want to get outside the government echo chamber, sources said.
The administration also wants to
craft a report that stands out. Part of
the upcoming challenge for Mr.
Bloomberg, long a champion of reducing the city’s carbon footprint,
will be making his plan the most
comprehensive among several that
have already been offered by elected
officials vying to be seen as poststorm leaders. Sen. Charles
Schumer has taken credit for getting
funding for a $20 million coastal
protection study by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. And Gov. An-
DOCTOR IS IN: Former Deputy Mayor Dan
Doctoroff is helping with the rebuilding plan.
drew Cuomo has announced he
wants to spend $400 million on
home buyouts in the state’s floodplains. The city hopes its alumni
network can help it craft a plan that
makes a splash.
That’s one reason why Mr.
Bloomberg’s Special Initiative for
Rebuilding and Resiliency has consulted with hundreds of stakeholders, a spokesman said.
“These include community leaders and elected officials, scientists,
academics, environmental groups, a
wide range of government agencies
and many others, some of whom
previously worked for the administration,” he said. “We look forward
to continuing these discussions
when we publish the report this
spring.” Ⅲ
rious with Mr. Greenberg’s suing
the government for rescuing AIG,
he is seen within the insurance industry as an oracle. Ms. Lamel estimates that one out of every five people who work in the industry has
worked at some point at AIG.
“More than anywhere else, it was
where you could get rich in the insurance business,” she said, and
many who came to see Mr. Greenberg last month at the Japan Society
did so to thank him for favors large
and small over the years.
“You paid for my M.B.A. at
NYU, so I’m grateful to you,” one
man in the audience told Mr.
Greenberg, who wisecracked: “Did
you get your money’s worth?”
Mr. Greenberg seldom spoke
publicly after AIG’s collapse but is
making more appearances lately before carefully screened audiences to
promote his book,which a Financial
Times columnist said “combines the
stiffness of a corporate annual report
with the ludicrousness of a communist dictator’s hagiography.” In
addition to appearing at the Japan
Society—where he is a board member—he has spoken at the National
Press Club, on CNBC and on
Bloomberg Television.
Meanwhile, he’s continuing to
press his suit against the government even though public opinion is
almost universally against him. He
said at the Japan Society that his attorneys, led by star lawyer David
Boies, are getting ready to take depositions and gather evidence that
the government’s bailout terms were
so harsh that they violated the constitutional prohibition against excessive “takings.”
“We’ll see where it goes. I feel
optimistic,” he said, adding: “I don’t
give up easily.” Ⅲ
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - March 11, 2013
IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
CORPORATE LADDER
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REAL ESTATE DEALS
REPORT: SMALL BUSINESS
STARTUP GUIDE
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS
Crains New York - March 11, 2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130729
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130722
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130715
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130624
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130617
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130610
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130603
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130527
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130520
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130513
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130429
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130422
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130415
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130408
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130401
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130325
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130318
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130311
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130225
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130218
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130211
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130128
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130121
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130114
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20130107
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121224
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121217
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121203
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121203_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121126
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121119
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121105
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121029
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20121001
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120924
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120917
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120910_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120827
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120820
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120813
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120806_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120730
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120723
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120716
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120625
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120618
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120611
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120604
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120528
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120521
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/20120514
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/crainsnewyork/nxtd
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com