>> you want to try this? he recounts how he wanted to turn around a company left for dead.

>> they put me on this aggressive chemotherapy. >> he was born in brooklyn in 1944. from there, money, having enough of it, became a driving force in his life. soon after graduating, he rose up the ranks of one of wall street's biggest firms. it was in 2009, three years after he retired from metlife,

that he took on his biggest job yet. it was in croatia that he accepted a job that would turn them into a key player in the financial crisis. at times, one of the most hated characters. during a boat ride along the ager attic coast, he explained how he fell in love with the country years ago. 1987, withhere in .bout 250 people >> this is the reward? >> the reward. they said this is unbelievable. i wanted to see if i could find a vineyard.

>> he did just that. acres bear fruit and olives. >> it looks like we will salvage a little something from this terrible season. >> the united states was in a violent financial storm. >> it is about zero. if aig failed, the insurance industry would never be the same. i big shareholder of met life.

>> aig had three ceos in 13 months. >> grandpa is on big trouble because he left his job to go on vacation after two weeks. >> you did a lot of things of that time. can i name some of them? you said you had bigger balls than the government. >> that was in a private meeting.

what i said was, i know they can come after us. the fact is, i'm not worried about the size of mine. the government is not going to tell me how to run this company. i am going to tell you how to run this company. that is what they hired me for. >> when you except that the job as ceo, you said, you are not going to work for ed liddy. when you came back, you didn't need the money. but you insisted on the pay. >> absolutely. >> that set the precedent. people should be paid what they are worth. >> that is beyond a doubt. the messages, we are going to pay competitively for positions. i need to make sure the people have hope and opportunity. they are going to be paid competitively. if we deliver a free and independent aig. i did not want my pay to be a

cause that pay is too high. pay should be relative to your performance, the performance of your company, and the value you create. >> coming up, going to war over bonuses. >> they spent $100 million watching people who earned $165 million for the work they did that they earned. ♪

>> benmosche's fight over his own pay turned out to be a small fight compared to the fight over pay for employees at aig. he found himself in a fight over bonuses. the same unit that almost sank aig. >> i want to read a quote. he said, we are in effect at war. over $165 million in bonuses.

>> why weren't they at war over the $100 million watching people work? you tell me. maybe i am nuts. >> crazy enough to threaten to quit the job he just started if the bonuses were not awarded. >> you threatened to quit. >> what i said was, i'm going to announce my retirement in april, 2010.

i will say we have stabilized and is this time to move on. if i cannot commit to a compensation program that made sense -- people were asking me to pay in aig stock. people in the administration and government did not think we could pay back the government. how much is the stock worth? nothing. why would you stay -- >> and get paid in stock? >> he did not step down and the bonuses were handed out. afterwards, most of the highest-paid executives agreed to give the money back. but the outrage over the bonuses and his compensation lingered. >> can you understand the public frustration? not only at the time but even now. the frustration with pay. can you understand that?

>> i understand part of it. you have to understand, they gave me $10.5 million a year. they thought they had a company of zero value. actually negative. today, that market cap, not the equity, the market value is almost $80 billion. if i said to the american public, i can create an $80 billion company and i will give it back to you with a profit, but i want 1% or 2%, they would give it to me. >> they don't see it that way. >> they don't understand what was created. >> they think the rich are getting richer. all the rich are enriching their friends. >> they see that. in 2009, march, i took every penny i had and bet on the

market. >> what are we talking about? >> we are not going to discuss them numbers. i did that. several americans did it to. guess what. it paid off. if you look at what happened in the five-year time, there has been huge growth. >> are you saying a rising tide lifts all boats? >> i'm saying you have to take a risk. if you take a risk and win, you should not be blamed for winning. the people who lose did not do so well. >> what he found when he first opened aig's books. >> i didn't figure it was that bad. the world thought they were worse than they were. ♪

wil >> compared to other wall street titans like jamie dimon, bob benmosche is less recognizable, but you couldn't tell on the streets of old dubrovnik, where people came up to the ceo to take photos. >> iem really nobody. am really nobody. >> he recalled the first time he took on the job with aig. when you first got your hands on the books, what was going on in the company? what did you see? >> i did not look in the books. i had a good idea of what was represented by what was in the books. because i spend a lot of time with jim milstein. jim was the restructuring executive who was handling this for the u.s. treasury. and i spend a lot of time with sarah dahlgren, who was also handling it for the new york

fed. they told me about the financials. i questioned them about the financials. and my assumption was that they did their due diligence. >> when they briefed you on what was going on at aig and what they knew, were they better or worse than you thought? >> the world thought they were worse than they were. >> you did not? >> i didn't think it was that bad. but it is a question of, if the outside world thinks it is that bad, i have to get you to stop talking about how bad it is. >> and bad it was. aig was expected to be broken up and it's best parts sold off. in 2009, then secretary tim geithner said he wanted aig just successful enough so the taxpayer can get out. benmosche had different plans. he was going to revive the company and pay the taxpayer back. did you ever think you might not? >> no, i did not think i could

not get it done. when i looked at everything, i could see that i could pay it back, and then what i said was, in september of 2009, i think what you are going to be left with is a $70 billion company. if you have $70 billion as your margin of error, there is no doubt. >> that was your back of the envelope. >> that was my back of the envelope calculation. i was wrong. it is $100 billion. and our market cap is $80 billion. >> when aig finally paid back the american taxpayers in 2012 with nearly a $23 billion profit, the company took out ads thanking the american people. but benmosche felt the thank yous to him from government officials fell short. you had lunch with timothy geithner. >> i did. >> was that the first time you had lunch with him?

>> the only time i had lunch with him. they met with me when they signed the deal that gave them 92% ownership of aig. the question was, how are we going to sell all the shares? they had lunch with me -- or saw me at the end of 2012, that would have been more meaningful. >> why? >> they should have said, what we put the people of aig through was horrific. i want you to say on my behalf that we appreciate their hard work and that it is incredible what they have accomplished. and to not only pay us back, not only give us a $23 billion profit -- $22.7 billion, but you've kept all these americans employed or you kept them as effective citizens of our country. and we thank you for that. >> they never said that. >> they never said that. >> it almost sounds like you were looking for an apology.

>> i think people should recognize they did a great job under the worst of conditions. >> today, aig is a slimmed-down version of itself, and profitable. but does it still pose a threat to the financial system? >> i don't think another aig will happen. >> we are not going to see another aig crisis. >> no. i think we have been in this position for over two years. i don't think you will see a bank failure that we've seen. i don't think you will see a security industries failure like bear or lehman. >> you give a thumbs up to the regulators. >> i give a thumbs up to the regulators for getting the job done, but i give them a thumbs down for being afraid to tell the public. i've criticized many people in washington at all levels. why don't you talk about how much progress you have made since 2008? their answer is, we are not sure something cannot go wrong.

i say, shame on you. because you should be sure. i am sure. >> when we come back, bob benmosche's villa splendid lives up to its name. >> there are not many views like this in the world. >> and he gets personal about his fight with cancer. >> with this illness, i have nine months to a year to live. ♪

>> how are you, bob? >> hi, betty. >> great to meet you. thank you so much for having me here. show me around your beautiful villa. in 2001, when benmosche was still the ceo of metlife, he began looking for a place to retire and settled on an old, abandoned villa. >> this whole space was a wreck. cracked tiles. but i looked at the view and said, wow. there aren't very many views like this in the world.

>> he and his wife bought the property for about $1 million and spent millions more fixing it up. >> all i preserved was the outside walls. and every thing was built from inside. >> on a cliff above the sea, it has 12 bathrooms, eight bedrooms, and three kitchens. it is aptly named villa splendid. when benmosche bought the place, he pictured himself relaxing in the garden, tending the grapes, and hosting parties with family and friends. what he did not expect was the terrible news that came in 2010. cancer. >> it is a terrible diagnosis. but one thing i learned in the life insurance business is everybody dies. we just aren't told a timeframe. you have this luxury of imagining that you're going to live many years beyond where today is. >> did the doctors say you have x number of years? you have x amount of time? in general for this illness, for this cancer? >> in general for this illness,

i have nine months to a year to live is what i was told. then they put me on aggressive chemotherapy. normally, you are supposed to get it over three days. i asked them to do it in a day. to see what effects it will have on me. i have an obligation to resign if i can't handle it chemotherapy. >> three days in one. >> i did it in one day. they said, ok, we can do it, but we don't like to do it. than we did a scan and it had no effect. >> they put him on an experimental treatment which did work. he 12-month prognosis stretched to three years. you never disclosed which cancer you had. >> i did not. >> will you ever? >> if i were comfortable disclosing it, and it would help people, i would. and so i don't want to give people, one, the concern that, geez, he's not going to be here

long, because i have obviously beat those odds. and secondly, i don't want to be able to tell people, i want to do what he did. >> i want to know what medicine he is on. >> right. because it worked for him. there is no miracle drugs here. it is the pipeline that counts. i think it is premature to get into a conversation about it. >> but the treatment stopped working. >> they reset the clock nine months to a year. >> when? >> back in may. and the board and i met in april. we said, look, i think you need to do some major changes in the organization. they were concerned about me changing the organization dramatically and then we announce a new ceo. give the new ceo chance to do that. i said, that is great. we were thinking about the first quarter of next year. and i said, i'm not going to play the odds and changes have to be made now. not later. i said, let's accelerate my retirement.

the board was happy to do that. >> on september 1, he turned over the ceo role to his chosen successor, peter hancock. the handover was smooth, quiet, hardly noted. a vast difference from the days when he took over. is there some sort of secret you can dispel to somebody who gets a diagnosis like that, but still is able to turn around a multibillion-dollar company? how do you do that when you are faced with a diagnosis like that? >> you have to focus on living. believe me, there are times in my life that, had the diagnosis come and the consequences of death came, it would be devastating. had it happened in the middle of getting aig to the point that we completed the restructuring. completed the 92% ownership of shares to the u.s. government. that would have been devastating.

it would have been devastating in 2005, when i was still getting this house finished and ready for my retirement. so, when you think about your death, think about what you have accomplished. if there's things that are worrying you about the legacy you leave behind, my father left behind a wife with four children, no will, $250,000 in debt. that is a horrible legacy to leave your children and your wife. >> you didn't want to repeat history? >> i did not want to repeat history. >> that makes sense. were there moments where you sat down and thought about that? went to a dark place? did you ever? >> i was never in a dark place. i felt the hardest thing is telling denise. then telling my son and daughter. it was very hard on me and then close friends. to be able to say to them that,

unfortunately, there's going to be a timeframe here. let's think about all the things we can celebrate of what we have already done. >> and done with the corporate world. now it is finally time to enjoy everything he has. >> my mother said, enjoy life when you are healthy. do not wait too long. >> could you have enjoyed this 20 years ago? >> sure. >> the same way? >> no, i did not have as much money. [laughter] it comes back to money. >> it comes back to money with you. ♪

♪ >> from pier 3 in san francisco, welcome to the "best of bloomberg west." where we focus on innovation, technology, and the future of business. i am emily chang. every weekend we'll bring you the best of west. "vanity fair" hosted its first ever new establishment summit in connection with the new establishment list right here in san francisco. on the list are the most