Skip to main content
C
CorpDigest
Search

MetLife, Inc.

Life InsuranceFounded 1868
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Leadership History

MetLife: CEO History

4 leaders · 1998 to present

Who is the CEO of MetLife?

Michel Khalaf is the CEO of MetLife, in the role since 2019. The first chief executive was Robert H. Benmosche, from 1998.

Current CEO
Michel Khalaf (since 2019)
First CEO
Robert H. Benmosche (1998)
Leaders documented
4
Founded
1868
NameRoleFromToYears in role
Michel KhalafPresident and Chief Executive Officer2019Present7
Steven A. KandarianFormer Chief Executive Officer201120209
C. Robert HenriksonChairman and Chief Executive Officer200620115
Robert H. BenmoscheFormer Chief Executive Officer199820068
Who was CEO of MetLife before Michel Khalaf?
Steven A. Kandarian was CEO of MetLife from 2011 to 2020, before Michel Khalaf took over in 2019.

Company Overview

MetLife, Inc. is the holding company for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and its affiliates, headquartered at 200 Park Avenue in New York City. It serves customers in more than 40 markets and employs about 46,000 people. Its reporting segments are Group Benefits, Retirement & Income Solutions, Asia, Latin America, EMEA, MetLife Investment Management and MetLife Holdings (run-off blocks). The brand was long associated with Snoopy and the Peanuts characters (1985 to 2016) and with the MetLife blimps. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York. The insurance behemoth was chartered in 1868 in New York City, originally providing modest industrial policies to working-class American families before evolving into the nation's premier institutional employee benefits provider.

Michel Khalaf

President and Chief Executive Officer

2019 – Present

7 years (current)

Key Decisions & Impact

New Frontier strategy (2024), PineBridge Investments acquisition (2025), and continued capital return of nearly $4.4B in 2025.

Legacy

Michel Khalaf became President and CEO in May 2019 after leading MetLife's US business and EMEA region. He launched the Next Horizon strategy and then New Frontier in December 2024, oversaw the PineBridge acquisition, and has prioritized expense discipline and share buybacks; adjusted EPS excluding notable items reached $8.89 in 2025.

Source →

Steven A. Kandarian

Former Chief Executive Officer

2011 – 2020

9 years

Key Decisions & Impact

He orchestrated the large structural reorganization required to safely handle the severe post-2008 global regulatory environment.

Legacy

Steven A. Kandarian was the transformative CEO who oversaw the company's most ambitious, albeit ultimately reversed, strategic maneuver: the accumulation of US retail market share through the New England Financial acquisition. Despite the eventual spin-off of the retail business, his tenure was marked by significant investments in the company's technological infrastructure and the successful navigation of the 2008 financial crisis, preserving the company's fortress-like capital position during a period of market stress.

Source →

C. Robert Henrikson

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

2006 – 2011

5 years

Key Decisions & Impact

Henrikson became chief executive in 2006.

Legacy

He led the 2010 purchase of Alico from AIG for about $16 billion. Steven Kandarian succeeded him in 2011.

Source →

Robert H. Benmosche

Former Chief Executive Officer

1998 – 2006

8 years

Key Decisions & Impact

He pioneered the essential digital modernization program that transformed the legacy corporate infrastructure.

Legacy

Robert H. Benmosche was the well-known, turnaround CEO who took the helm during a period of severe operational inefficiency and declining market share. He was instrumental in initiating the company's first major wave of digital modernization, cutting costs, and refocusing the organization on its core competencies in group benefits and institutional life insurance, laying the groundwork for the company's subsequent decades of disciplined, market-leading growth.

Source →

Challenges & Strategic Context

MetLife's main pressures are interest-rate and credit exposure in its general account, including commercial real estate mortgage loans; variable investment income from private equity and real estate, which was a headwind in 2Q 2026; claims volatility in group disability and dental; foreign-currency swings in Japan and Latin America; and price competition in pension risk transfer, where private-equity-backed insurers have become aggressive bidders. Integrating PineBridge into MIM and hitting the New Frontier targets announced in December 2024 are execution tests for 2026-2027.

MetLife CEO and Leadership FAQ

Who was Robert H. Benmosche and how did he lead MetLife's demutualization in 2000?

Robert H. Benmosche served as Chairman and CEO of MetLife from 1998 to 2006. Benmosche orchestrated MetLife's historic conversion from a policyholder-owned mutual company into a publicly traded corporation (demutualization) in April 2000, raising $3.1 billion on the NYSE and transforming MetLife into an agile global financial leader.

What major accomplishments defined Steven A. Kandarian's tenure as CEO from 2011 to 2019?

Steven A. Kandarian served as Chairman and CEO from 2011 to 2019. Kandarian led MetLife's successful legal battle to overturn its federal SIFI 'Too Big to Fail' designation in 2016, orchestrated the strategic spin-off of Brighthouse Financial in 2017, and refocused the enterprise on capital-light B2B group insurance and asset management.

What strategic transformations has Michel Khalaf executed since becoming CEO in 2019?

Since becoming CEO in May 2019, Michel Khalaf steered MetLife through the COVID-19 pandemic, expanded MetLife Investment Management into a $600B+ global asset manager, acquired pet health insurance leader PetFirst and digital benefits platform Versant Health, and achieved record adjusted return on equity (ROE).

Who was Haley Fiske and how did he establish MetLife's public welfare and health advocacy in the early 20th century?

Haley Fiske served as President of Metropolitan Life from 1919 to 1929 (having joined in 1891). Fiske pioneered 'Welfare Work for Policyholders,' deploying an army of visiting nurses to policyholders' homes, distributing billions of health education pamphlets, establishing tuberculosis sanatoriums, and proving that improving public health lowers life insurance claims.

Who was Frederick H. Ecker and what was his notable 70-year career at MetLife?

Frederick H. Ecker (1867 to 1960) joined MetLife as a 15-year-old mailroom boy in 1883 and rose to become President, CEO, and Chairman. Over a 70-year career, Ecker directed MetLife's large investments in American infrastructure, financing the construction of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and landmark housing developments like Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan.

Who was C. Robert Henrikson and how did he guide MetLife through the 2008 financial crisis?

C. Robert Henrikson served as CEO from 2006 to 2011. Henrikson steered MetLife through the 2008 Great Recession without taking federal TARP bailout funds, capitalized on competitors' distress to acquire American Life Insurance Company (Alico) from AIG for $16.2 billion in 2010, and expanded MetLife's footprint into 50 countries.

Who serves as MetLife's Chief Financial Officer managing capital and balance sheet liquidity?

John McCallion serves as Chief Financial Officer and Head of MetLife Investment Management, directing global financial operations, capital management, actuarial reserving, investor relations, and third-party asset management growth.

How has MetLife's board of directors modernized governance in recent years?

MetLife maintains an independent Lead Director structure on its Board of Directors, conducting rigorous annual risk assessments across cybersecurity, commercial real estate underwriting, climate sustainability, and actuarial assumption benchmarks.

How did CEO Steven Kandarian defeat the US government's SIFI designation?

Following the 2008 financial crisis, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) designated MetLife as a Systemically Important Financial Institution ("Too Big To Fail"), subjecting it to onerous bank-like Federal Reserve capital rules. CEO Steven Kandarian took the unprecedented step of suing the federal government in 2015. In 2016, a federal judge overturned the SIFI designation, freeing MetLife from punitive regulatory burdens.

Related Leadership Timelines

Compare executive leadership tenures and strategic transitions

Competitor

Prudential

View Leadership Timelines
Competitor

Aflac

View Leadership Timelines
Competitor

Unum

View Leadership Timelines
Competitor

Principal Financial

View Leadership Timelines
Competitor

Lincoln National

View Leadership Timelines
Competitor

Cigna

View Leadership Timelines

Explore MetLife

Core profile pages, founders and related research hubs for this company.

Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.