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Facetime June 17, 2008, 5:00PM EST

Greenberg, Broad on AIG's Latest Upheaval

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Broad: He has great faith in newly appointed lead diretor Steve Bollenback Damon Winter / The New York TImes / Redux

Broad: Look, Hank Greenberg built a great international financial service and insurance company—one without peer. But when Spitzer got after him and he left, he didn't leave a deep bench behind, and that was a problem. The only person there was Marty Sullivan, who had great competency in commercial insurance but certainly did not have the background to lead a multinational financial-services company. [The board] should have probably had a worldwide search to find someone to replace Hank, which never happened.

What do you think about Stephen Bollenbach? Is he up to the task?

Greenberg: I don't know him personally, but he has a good reputation. He's friendly with Eli Broad, and I have high regard for Eli's judgment. And a number of other people that I know speak very highly of him. So I think that's very positive.

Broad: I have a lot of confidence in Steve Bollenbach, who's done great at everything he's ever done in life, most recently at Hilton (BX), as you know, and before that Disney (DIS). Having said all of that, it's clear that Bob, hopefully with the help of Steve, will have to recruit a great chief financial officer.

Hank, are you encouraged that Willumstad is sort of making a public outreach to you?

Greenberg: Well, yes. I think that's a positive sign. We'll see. You know, I'm very open-minded.

Broad: If I were Willumstad, I would seek Hank's advice. But he's still the CEO, and he's got to make the decisions—not Hank Greenberg or anyone else.

Hank, you built this company that operates in more than 100 countries.

Greenberg: One hundred and thirty.

One hundred and thirty countries. Some people say there are not a lot of people who can really control this behemoth other than you, given your intimate knowledge of the company. And they say: "Look, does it make sense to put someone who helped build an unmanageable giant called Citigroup in charge of another enormous management challenge?" Can anyone really control this behemoth in its current form?

Greenberg: I've heard people say that, and I think it's a silly question. There's more than one person in the world who can run a company. You've got to have an individual who has a vision, energy, is willing to pay the price—which means 24/7—and you don't do it because you have to, you do it because you love to. And you have the intellectual capacity to do it. I can't believe that the model is broken when one person leaves, whether it's Citigroup or AIG or GE (GE) or any other company like that. Yes, you have to be discerning about whom you choose, and you have to have a board of directors that understands the vision. But no, I don't think it's impossible [to find someone who can run AIG].

Let me switch gears and ask you a little about your travels, Hank. You've been to Russia, China, and elsewhere recently. Based on supply-and-demand fundamentals around the world, should oil be where it is?

Greenberg: No. I think there is some distortion in the energy pricing, and there has been some speculation in the futures market. But having said that, the demand for oil and energy has increased dramatically. Countries that were not very big users of imported oil now are searching the world for oil, China being one. But look, we have tremendous sources of oil in our own country, both onshore and offshore, that we're not exploiting. It's going to take time to do so, and it's going to take some changes in legislation both at the state level and the federal level. I don't know why we continue to spend $600 billion a year sending that money to other countries, principally the Middle East, when we have the opportunity to drill onshore and offshore and meet the environmental standards that are required.

Maria Bartiromo is the anchor of CNBC's Closing Bell .

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