Donald Kanak, chief operating officer of insurer American International Group, has resigned and will leave the company on Jan. 31. He has also stood down as executive vice-chairman of the board.
AIG will not seek a successor to Kanak, who has resigned for personal reasons. "We are not replacing him," says Chris Winans, an AIG spokesman. "We intend to leave the position open and we have no plans to fill it."
But this will not leave a gap in the company's organisational structure, according to Winans. He says Kanak did not manage any large business units. "Kanak's departure will not leave any business units unattended. His position was a strategic one. He was like a facilitator – he would get people into a room and get them brainstorming," he says.
Kanak relocated to Asia in January 2005 to work with Edmund Tse, senior vice-chairman of life insurance at AIG, on AIG's expansion in Asia. Tse will continue this. "Heads of divisions in Japan, Korea, India and Australia reported to Kanak," says Winans. "This is a reporting line issue, if anything."
Analysts say AIG is unlikely to be affected by Kanak's departure because he had more of a planning role than a lot of day-to-day responsibility. Winans agrees. "AIG is too broad and too deep to be affected by one person's departure," he says.
AIG has also appointed two new directors – Fred Langhammer and Robert Willumstad – to its board.
There has been some press speculation that Willumstad is a favourite to become the company's new non-executive chairman. However, Winans says that any independent director on the company's board would be equally eligible. "It's not just Willumstad," he says.
