Michael I. Roth

Michael Isor Roth (born 1946), an American accountant and lawyer who served as the former chairman and chief executive of the Interpublic Group of Companies and the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.

Early life Roth grew up in Brooklyn where his father was a lawyer and his mother was a bookkeeper. Roth received an undergraduate degree in accounting from the City College of New York after received his Juris Doctor from Boston University Law School and a masters of law from New York University Law School. In September 2003, AXA Financial, Inc. announced a takeover offer of $1.5 billion for MONY Group of New York, which Roth supported but some of its largest shareholder's, including Highfields Capital Management, Third Avenue Management, Southeastern Asset Management and Advisory Research, immediately objected to as being too low. The offer was accepted by shareholders in May 2004, and on July 8, 2004, MONY became a wholly owned subsidiaries of European insurer, allowing AXA to become "the fourth-largest seller of variable annuities in the United States and the largest seller of variable life insurance."

Interpublic In January 2005, Roth became chief executive officer and co-chairman of the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) in New York, succeeding David A. Bell. Roth had previously joined the Interpubic board in February 2002. Notably, "Interpublic had to restate earnings downward by $181.3 million, because of accounting irregularities that first emerged in August 2002." Upon Bell's retirement in 2006, he became sole chairman. In October 2020, IPG announced that Phillippe Krakowsky would be succeeding Roth as the company's CEO on January 1, 2021. Roth retired from the company and the Board of Directors on December 31, 2021.

Today, he serves as chairman of the technology company Pitney Bowes, where he has been a director since 1995.

Personal life Roth lives with his wife in Pound Ridge, New York. They are the parents of Andrew Evan Roth, a lawyer who married Sarra Jill Cooper, a daughter of Dr. Robert A. Cooper, in 2006.