Ah, to be paid to leave your job and then paid to take your next.
That's what it's like when companies recruit new CEOs. And Brian Duperreault, the nonexecutive chairman of Ace Ltd. , the Bermuda-based insurer with major operations in Philadelphia, is the latest to benefit.
Duperreault, 60, was hired last week by New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. In him, Marsh saw an executive who took Ace from a tiny insurer specializing in catastrophes into a multiline insurer.
The board of Marsh, an insurance brokerage that actually helped spawn Ace in 1985, moved fast after deciding Dec. 21 it needed to replace Michael G. Cherkasky, who had been CEO since late 2004.
Cherkasky had helped stabilize a company that was rocked by charges by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office of bid-rigging and taking kickbacks from insurance companies. But shareholders last year began to grumble about Marsh's flat financial performance.
So Marsh turned to Duperreault, who had been Ace's CEO from 1994 until 2004.
While Marsh has not disclosed what it's paying Duperreault, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows that Marsh awarded him 343,997 restricted stock units and options to buy 1.2 million shares of Marsh stock at $27.28 per share.
It's hard to value what that package is worth because the units and options vest over time. And options are worthless unless the stock price rises.
Duperreault had been chairman of Ace since he retired as an employee in June 2006. Marsh is a competitor, so he resigned from Ace's board Jan. 29.
But he got not only a plum, if high-pressure, job; Ace, which employs more than 2,300 people in the Philadelphia area, gave him this nice parting gift, according to another SEC filing:
In connection with Mr. Duperreault's resignation, the Compensation Committee approved a cash severance payment to Mr. Duperreault in the amount of $4,950,000 as compensation for his past service to ACE Limited.
Thanks a million. And a million. And a …
