Robert Herman Benmosche (/bɛnmoʊˈʃeɪ/ ben-moh-SHAY, May 29, 1944 – February 27, 2015) was the president and chief executive officer of American International Group (NYSE: AIG).

[1] He was appointed President & Chief Executive Officer by the US Department of Treasury and AIG Board of Directors to succeed Edward M.

[6] Benmosche traced his Jewish lineage back to Lithuania, where his great-grandfather, Moshe Kreiskol, was one of the first Jews to serve in the tsar's army in the 1830s.

His estate included a newly constructed motel in the Borscht Belt—the small towns in the Catskills where New York City Jews summered; and $250,000 debt.

As his career progressed at Paine Webber, Benmosche continued to gain new responsibilities, eventually earning a promotion to the position of executive vice president and director of operations, administration and technology.

[10] In 2001, Benmosche purchased the 1923 Lafayette Theatre in his hometown of Suffern, New York, and successfully led its historic preservation effort.

"AIG is now on a clear path to repaying taxpayers ... At the end of the day, the U.S. government will make an appropriate profit," he testified.

[15] Benmosche oversaw the sale of non-core assets in AIG's portfolio to pay down the $182 billion in government aid.

[18][19][20][21] On December 14, 2012, Benmosche announced that the U.S. government and American taxpayers received their full investment in AIG, plus a $22 billion positive return.

[29] In September 2013, Benmosche gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal in which he compared public outrage over AIG bonuses to the lynching of African-Americans in the Deep South, saying "the uproar was intended to stir public anger, to get everybody out there with their pitch forks and their hangman nooses, and all that – sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago].