NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Sometimes it takes a bit of rocket science to get a deal done. Lucky for MetLife(MET) senior vice president Sachin Shah-- the dealmaker behind the $15.5 billion acquisition of American International Group's(AIG) ALICO unit-- has experience building harpoons and missiles. 
Sachin Shah, senior vice president, MetLife
Shah stood side by side with William Toppeta, international president of MetLife and MetLife CFO Bill Wheeler when the insurer started discussions with AIG in 2008.
"We saw what was an unbelievable opportunity. We did compete with [AIG's ALICO] in many markets and never thought this was a company we could acquire. We very quickly tried to seize the opportunity and it took a little longer than expected," Shah says.
Shah, who joined MetLife in 1999, says his prior jobs-- engineering missiles, elevators, and back office and trading operations -- have helped prepare him for the pressure involved in completing the transaction.
"My specialty is figuring out complex problems. I was quickly fansinated with the business side," he said. "This was not your normal sale. We had to work with them to very quickly to prepare the divestiture of these assets. There was a lot of complexity involved in this; ensuring this was the right answer for AIG."
As the dealmaker in charge of leading the integration, Shah has put together an integration team consisting of 30 different sub-teams that are working on fully integrating ALICO's distribution systems, technology, branding and marketing across 64 countries in 18 months.
Shah spends most of his day collaborating with people from different businesses in both MetLife and ALICO on the best way to drive change in the organization. He says the most difficult part of his job is making the right decisions quickly.
"You are always moving fast and you are always striving to balance speed versus perfection at minimal risk. Just finding enough time to ensure that every decision we are making is the best decision we are making," Shah explains, saying he has been frequently traveling and has had very few weekends free. "The stakes are now much higher and we are in markets that we had no presence in before. We have had to move very quickly. I stressed over that a lot."
