Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Chief Risk Officer

A casual observer might think he fell down on the job a bit.

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Ambac Financial Group Inc., the bond insurer that posted losses of $5.2 billion related to mortgage- linked securities last quarter, said its chief risk officer resigned.

William McKinnon left on Feb. 8, the New York-based company said today in a regulatory filing. McKinnon had been with Ambac, the world's second-largest bond insurer, since at least 1989, according to Bloomberg data.

McKinnon was in charge of risk while Ambac expanded beyond insuring municipal debt to guaranteeing collateralized debt obligations and subprime mortgage-related securities. Ambac had its first-ever and biggest losses in the third and fourth quarters as the value of those securities tumbled.


For his awesome job performance, in 2007 he was given "an $800,000 bonus, $425,000 in restricted stock and options to buy 32,500 additional shares at $11.13 each."