During a whirlwind one-day trip to the Island last Thursday, Marsh & McLennan chief executive Michael Cherkasky shopped for insurance to protect the company?s top brass against lawsuits, lunched with Bermuda-based Marsh staff, and performed long-distance crisis management.

A burst water main at Marsh?s Manhattan headquarters had downed power and cut off elevator service. Mr. Cherkasky, eager to get back and help sort out the problem, moved up appointments so he could head to the airport in good time to make a commercial flight home.

Handling the flooding crisis last week pales in comparison to the mess that met Mr. Cherkasky as he moved into the CEO suite at Marsh, the world?s largest insurance brokerage, some 20 months earlier.

His ascension to the top spot came within a fortnight of an October 2004 lawsuit from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, alleging a system of price-fixing and kickback payments at Marsh.

Facing Mr. Cherkasky in the new job was the monstrous task of stemming costs, including rising legal fees and the prospect of a multi-million dollar settlement, as the firm braced for a serious decline in revenues.

Step one, ?we sold our $30 million private jet,? Mr. Cherkasky said during an interview while in Bermuda.

The 2004 sale was to be the first of numerous, and continuing, cost-cutting measures Mr. Cherkasky made after being promoted from Kroll Inc., one of Marsh?s consulting arms, to chief executive of Marsh & McLennan. He also served as chief executive of Marsh Inc., the insurance brokerage arm that was the subject of the suit, for several months.

Mr. Cherkasky, who replaced former CEO Jeffrey Greenberg after he was forced out amidst the scandal, also cut more than 5,000 jobs during those early months. While steering the troubled company, he brokered an $850 million settlement with Mr. Spitzer, a former colleague.

Today Mr. Cherkasky is taking the knife to the global company?s IT system. A two-year plan will cut the number of IT centres from 100, roughly one for each country operated in, to six.

The measure will save ?tens of millions of dollars? a year, he said.

The savings are projected for Marsh Inc., which accounts for about $5 billion of Marsh & McLennan?s more than $12 billion in annual revenues. More savings will follow as similar plans are installed in other units, he added.

Mr. Cherkasky, a native New Yorker, said he?s out of the office on business more than he?s at home these days. But the former prosecutor, who earned $10.7 million last year, said he?s not tempted to make the ride more cushy by reinvesting in a company jet.

?It is not just for cost savings,? he said. ?No one in this company, in the state we were in, should have any arrogance: We have to be hungry and humble.?

Mr. Cherkasky does the odd bit of consulting work when he?s not tied up with running the company. ?I still bill hours,? he said, having retained a few clients from his pre-CEO days.

His efforts, while admirable, don?t appear to have swayed wary investors.

The company?s stock has lost 38 percent of its value since the lawsuit.

And an early May earnings report showing income was more than three times higher than a year earlier did little to bolster the stock.

The company?s first quarter profits rose as the company?s heavy legal costs declined from $226 million a year ago to around $63 million, which helped offset a continued decline in revenues.

Mr. Cherkasky said lacklustre revenues in the quarter, continuing a trend of negative growth over the last five quarters, wasn?t a surprise.

?Revenues are vanities,? he said. The firm walked away from $100 million in revenues last year, he added, as it cut off unprofitable accounts.

At the company?s May 18 annual general meeting, Mr. Cherkasky told shareholders Marsh is being transformed into a more efficient, cost-effective company across the 100 countries it operates in, and that clients are taking note. ?I see these things but I understand that you don?t,? he told investors.

Marsh is now beginning to win back clients it lost in the wake of the lawsuit, he said. And the firm is also hard at work to once again attract new clients, a particularly thorny area since the scandal hit. Mr. Cherkasky believes winning client confidence is a first step to renewing the firm?s favour among shareholders.

?It is taking us a while,? Mr. Cherkasky said of Marsh?s healing process. ?I don?t think we are sick but we are not where we need to be or can be.

?We are executing our plan, and we are confident that Wall Street will recognise that.?