("MetLife Investment Officer Kandarian Named President, CEO,"
published at 4:32 p.m. ET, misstated Kandarian's age in the second
paragraph. A corrected version follows.)
MetLife Inc. (MET) said Chief Investment Officer Steven R.
Kandarian will become the life insurer's president and chief
executive, succeeding C. Robert Henrikson, who in 2012 will reach
the company's executive management mandatory retirement age.
Kandarian, 59, will assume the posts on May 1 and will also be
nominated for election to MetLife's board at the company's annual
shareholder meeting in April. Henrikson, 63, will continue to serve
as chairman during a transition period through the end of 2011.
Kandarian joined MetLife as the company's chief investment
officer in April 2005, helping enhance the company's focus on
effective risk management and diversifying its investment
portfolio, in part through the $5.4 billion sale of Peter Cooper
Village/Stuyvesant Town, a residential development in New York
City, in 2006.
Prior to joining MetLife, Kandarian was the executive director
of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. from 2001 to 2004. He also
founded and was a managing partner of Orion Partners LP.
Henrikson, meanwhile, began his career at MetLife as a sales
representative in 1972 and held various roles in the pensions
business, group insurance and retirement and savings businesses. He
took on the CEO, president and chairman titles in 2006.
MetLife last month reported its fourth-quarter profit slumped
74% mostly because of derivative losses. Still, the company's
bottom line has mostly rebounded recently after a streak in the
red, as MetLife shed investment losses incurred during the
financial crisis and its aftermath.
Shares were down 1.8% to $43.79 in after-hours trading.
-By John Kell, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2480;
john.kell@dowjones.com