Michael J. Schozer resigned Monday from his post as president of Assured Guaranty Corp. (AGC), a position he has held since December 2003, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
Schozer left on “mutually agreeable” terms, the filing said, and will remain an employee of the company for the remainder of the month. A company statement said Schozer left to “pursue other interests.”
Sean W. McCarthy, chief operating officer of AGC’s parent, Assured Guaranty, will assume his responsibilities.
In July Assured Guaranty completed its acquisition of Financial Security Assurance, recently renamed Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp.
Together the two firms write virtually all of the new insurance in the primary municipal market, as its competitors were severely hurt from insuring the structured finance products that played such a prominent role in the financial crisis.
Schozer will be paid his base annual salary of $400,000 through Dec. 31. He leaves with total severance benefits equal to two years of salary, or $800,000, plus medical benefits.
Prior to joining AGC, Schozer was managing director of structured finance and credit derivatives at Ambac Assurance Corp, which he joined in 1996. Before that he ran the North America structured products group at Barclays Bank.
He has also worked at KPMG and Ernst & Young, and he holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Virginia.
Last week, Assured Guaranty raised $574 million in fresh funds through a common stock offering to comply with capital strengthening requests from Moody’s Investors Service.
