was a good fit for us as an insurance com-
pany, since it requires significant actuarial
skills and a well-managed retail sales force
to be successful,” Wheeler says. “We felt
the business leveraged our strengths.”
In 2010, MetLife acquired the servicing
rights to residential mortgages previously
serviced by Am Trust Bank. With more than
$10 billion in customer deposits, MetLife
Bank is now ranked as one of the top 100
commercial banks in the U.S. CEO Henrik-
son again touts Wheeler’s oversight as cru-
cial. “Under Bill’s watch, the bank has had
tremendous growth, both organically and
through acquisitions,” he says. “He brought
the same approach to overseeing our M&A
activity in the retail banking business.”
Wheeler’s dealmaking expertise was
honed during his years as an investment
banker with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
(DLJ), where he was involved in M&A ac-
tivity, leveraged buyouts, equity and debt
financings and corporate restructurings,
including a few in the insurance industry.
In the 1990s, DLJ was actually owned by
a life insurer—Equitable—which sold 20%
of DLJ in a public offering in 1995. “Bill
worked on that deal and was a major fac-
tor in its success,” recalls Eric Steigerwalt,
then vice president of investor relations at
the Equitable.
“Unlike your stereotypical CFO numbers
guy, he’s someone who visualizes how to
operationalize others’ high-flying strate-
gic ideas,” Steigerwalt says. “He’s always
thinking, ‘Do the financials match what
others are suggesting strategically?’ and it
sets him apart.”
This was evident in Wheeler’s ap-
proach to MetLife’s banking business,
says Steigerwalt, now CFO and executive
vice president of MetLife’s U.S. business.
“Bill recognized that the macroeconomic
environment would work to our advantage,
and he put together a couple of acquisi-
tions that leveraged our strengths and
positioned us really well,” he explains.
“He’s also been able to bring in a lot of
good people at the bank, which puts us in
good stead as it continues to grow in the
future.”
Wheeler has been MetLife’s CFO since
2003, when he was just 42 years old. He
joined the company as treasurer in 1997,
and played a key role preparing MetLife to
become a public company three years later
(previously it was a mutual insurer). He’s a
“down to earth and very likable guy,” says
Steigerwalt, “who despite his intellectual
gifts has a great sense of humor. That’s the
real hallmark of his personality—that and
Under Bill’s
watch, MetLife
Bank has had
tremendous
growth, both
organically and through
acquisitions.
—METLIFE CEO HENRIKSON
the fact that he’s a great communicator.”
Timing is crucial in business, especially
for M&A transactions. In the case of Alico,
MetLife bought the company at a time
when life insurance markets were opening
up in several emerging economies. “The
U.S. is a very mature market; strategically
it made great sense to increase our pres-
ence in growth markets internationally,”
Wheeler explains. “A good example where
the life business is really just emerging is
Poland, where Alico had a very big opera-
tion for some 20 years. Now that business
is growing quite fast and is providing us a
high [return on equity]. There are several
other countries just like Poland that are in
similar early stages of development.”
Alico has operations in 55 countries,
many representing new markets for MetLife.
Steigerwalt calls the deal “a once-in-a-gen-
eration opportunity—the right deal at the
right time and a perfect fit for us.”
Wheeler agrees, noting that there was
“no other property like Alico in the world
for us to buy—other than one.” That excep-
tion was AIA Life Insurance. “Although
both companies are of similar size and prof-
itability, AIA is focused on Asian markets
other than Japan, whereas Alico is focused
on the rest of the world,” Wheeler says. “We
also felt it offered great growth prospects
and significant ROE. Even though we’d be
dealing with AIG and all its issues and chal-
lenges, we felt we had to hang in there.”
The acquisition process was full of “fits
and starts,” he explains, “made worse by
the huge swoon in the stock market [in
early 2009]. But we kept in touch with AIG
and Alico through the year and really began
negotiating in earnest again in late 2009.”
Of the $16.2 billion MetLife paid for Alico,
about $7 billion was cash and the rest was
in securities. Now that the deal is done,
Wheeler says MetLife is not about to rest on
its laurels.
