62 Years at Same Firm: How One Man Did It -- WSJ

By Leslie Scism 

When Maurice "Hank" Greenberg resigned as chief executive from American International Group Inc. in 2005, his career there was invariably referred to as long. It stretched about 45 years.

But Mr. Greenberg doesn't have a thing on Manuel "Manolo" Rodriguez, who retired a few weeks ago with what AIG said is the longest tenure at the global insurer: 62 years. AIG was founded in 1919.

Executives, consultants and others who know the property-casualty insurance industry see Mr. Rodriguez's feat as unlikely to be repeated, highlighting a changed competitive environment and demographics.

Mr. Rodriguez, 79 years old, started employment at AIG in 1954 as an 18-year-old messenger in Cuba and rose to head its Puerto Rico offices.

"I did get offers from other companies, but I was happy," Mr. Rodriguez said in an interview.

Robert Hartwig, president of trade group Insurance Information Institute, doesn't see Mr. Rodriguez's accomplishment being topped.

While longer lives will make for longer careers, workers are now more likely to move among companies, he said.

New types of insurance jobs and new categories of risk are proliferating amid fast-changing technology, "allowing for rapid advancement for those seizing opportunity" wherever it exists. In addition, the latest generation is less likely to stay "tied down to a single geographic region."

Among industries, property-casualty insurance is one of the most likely, however, for a longer career with one firm.

"It is an industry that values experience and relationships, and both of those increase with time spent on the job," said Mr. Hartwig, who has known a number of people who have worked at a single insurer for a half century or so.

The average employee tenure was 8.1 years as of 2014, the latest figure available, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a membership group. The average tenure in the insurance industry specifically stood at 8.9 years.

Mr. Rodriguez came to AIG by chance, and his career was nearly cut short twice, first by Fidel Castro's rise to power, and then by a car accident in the late 1980s that nearly cost him his life.

The job stemmed from a beach outing.

While on a bus, his father pointed to AIG's office building, where people were coming and going. "This looks like a good place to work," the son recalls his father, who was a baker, saying.

Mr. Rodriguez was among employees relocated by AIG to the U.S. during the communist takeover of the country. At first, the idea of leaving family in Cuba "was shocking" and he hesitated.

But in 1961, he and his wife moved to New York.

In 1963, he transferred to AIG's fledgling Puerto Rico office. He earned a college degree and for many years assessed property and liability risks, such as exposure of condominiums to hurricanes. He worked with brokers to find ways to provide coverage meeting the needs of their business clients.

In an interview, Mr. Greenberg, 91, who now runs another insurance conglomerate, recalled Mr. Rodriguez as being "very diligent. He had very good relationships with brokers. He was extremely knowledgeable about our business." Mr. Greenberg joined AIG in late 1960 from another insurance company.

Francisco Diaz, an AIG senior executive in Puerto Rico, said colleagues considered Mr. Rodriguez "like an encyclopedia" on questions about insurance, able to "give you the right answer."

He was a late adopter to using a personal computer but ultimately checked his BlackBerry frequently enough to be teased by his grandchildren, his family said.

Still, "he was not a big email guy," said his son, Manny Rodriguez. "It's the personal touch with him: 'Hey, can I have five minutes of your time to hash things out?' "

"My dad is a seriously loyal man" who was always appreciative that AIG "had invested in him, believed in him," from Cuba onwards, the younger Mr. Rodriguez said.

Write to Leslie Scism at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 06, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.