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Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Hannah Senesh |
Maurice Raymond "Hank" Greenberg (born May 4, 1925) is an American business executive and former chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG), which was the world's 18th largest public company and its largest insurance and financial services corporation.
He is currently chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. (C.V. Starr), a diversified financial services firm that is named for the founder of AIG, Cornelius Vander Starr. He joined C.V. Starr as Vice President in 1960 and was given the additional responsibilities of President of American Home Assurance Company in 1962. He was elected Director of C.V. Starr in 1965, Chairman and Chief Executive officer in 1968 and continues in that role. Greenberg is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Managing Director of Starr International Company Inc., and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Starr International USA, Inc. (Starr International USA). C.V. Starr and Starr International USA are collectively known as Starr Companies.
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He is the son of Jewish candy store owner Jacob Greenberg. His father died when he was seven and his mother, Ada Rheingold, married a dairy farmer. Greenberg served in the U. S. Army in Europe during World War II, participating in the Liberation of Dachau and in the Korean War, rising to the rank of Captain; he is a recipient of the Bronze Star. He received his Bachelor's Degree in pre-law from the University of Miami, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity, and his law degree from New York Law School in 1950. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1953. He holds honorary degrees from several colleges including Brown University, Middlebury College, New York Law School and The Rockefeller University.
In 1962, Greenberg was named by AIG's founder, Cornelius Vander Starr, as the head of AIG's failing North American holdings. In 1968, Starr picked Greenberg as his successor. Greenberg held the position until 2005, when he stepped down amid a major leadership scandal and was replaced by Martin J. Sullivan. He was subsequently the subject of New York State civil charges which are still unresolved.
In 2008, he appeared ABC's "Good Morning America" criticizing the board of directors. In an interview with Reactions magazine in March 2010, serialised over three parts, Greenberg stated that he did not condone AIG's strategy of selling non-core assets to pay back the US government, and believed the terms under which AIG was provided access to bail-out funds needed to be renegotiated.
Greenberg was both a social friend and client of Henry Kissinger, utilising his consultancy, Kissinger Associates, for advice and operations in a number of countries, particularly in Asia. In 1987 he appointed Kissinger as chairman of AIG's International Advisory Board.
He is married and has four children. He is the father of Jeffrey W. Greenberg, former chairman and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) before he was ousted, and of Evan G. Greenberg, president and CEO of ACE Limited. Together, he and his sons controlled a major portion of the insurance industry.
Greenberg is Honorary Vice Chairman and Director of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission. In the 1980s, his extensive foreign connections prompted the Reagan administration to offer him a job as Deputy Director of the CIA, which he declined.
In 1990, Greenberg was appointed by Zhu Rongji, then Mayor of Shanghai, to be the first Chairman of the International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai. In 1994, Greenberg was appointed Senior Economic Advisor to the Beijing Municipal Government. He was awarded “Honorary Citizen of Shanghai” in 1997. He is a Member of the Advisory Board of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, a Member of the International Advisory Council of the China Development Research Foundation and China Development Bank.
He was appointed as a member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Council of International Advisers where he served from 1998 to 2005.
He was awarded "CEO of the Year 2003" by Chief Executive Magazine.
He is a former Chairman and currently a Trustee of the Asia Society, Trustee Emeritus of the Rockefeller University, and is an honorary Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, all three institutions founded by the Rockefeller family.
He is also a former Chairman and current member of the US–Korea Business Council, a member of the US–China Business Council, and the Business Council. He has served on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, and the Business Roundtable. He is a past Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Committee on United States – China Relations.
Greenberg is Chairman Emeritus of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Foundation, Inc. He serves as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Weill Medical School of Cornell University, Life Trustee of New York University, Trustee for the School of Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science and is Chairman of the Academic Medicine Development Company (AMDeC). Greenberg also serves as a member of the President’s Council on International Activities of Yale University.
He is on the Board of Directors of the International Rescue Committee and is active in a number of other civic and charitable organizations. He was a former Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History.
As Chairman of The Starr Foundation, Greenberg oversees the disbursement of major financial support to academic, medical, cultural, and public policy institutions.
The Maurice "Hank" Greenberg Scholarship, administered in his name by the US-China Education Trust, supports the studies at 10 Chinese students from low-income families each year at Yunnan University.
On September 20, 2006, the Council on Foreign Relations hosted a small meeting of select council members with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While giving his speech, President Ahmadinejad expressed doubt that the holocaust had occurred. Greenberg responded: "Listen, I went through Dachau during the war. To suggest it didn't occur is simply a lie." President Ahmadinejad responded by asking if Greenberg was old enough to have participated in the liberation of Dachau.
On March 15, 2005, AIG's board forced Greenberg to resign from his post as Chairman and CEO under the shadow of criticism from Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of the state of New York. On May 26, 2005, as part of a series of actions against leaders of large corporations, Spitzer filed a complaint against Greenberg, AIG, and Howard I. Smith (ex-CFO of AIG) alleging fraudulent business practice, securities fraud, common law fraud, and other violations of insurance and securities laws. Greenberg's public statements show that he found the Spitzer investigation to be very troubling.
After a subsequent investigation, however, all criminal charges were dropped, and Greenberg was not held responsible for any crimes. The State Attorney General's office however is still pursuing Greenberg in civil court for many of these same criminal allegations. Greenberg settled on a $15 million fine for the accusations of fraudulent AIG financial positions.
Spitzer did, however, bring civil charges against Greenberg, though he dropped two of the six initial charges in September 2006. Greenberg's attorney claimed vindication with the dropping of the two charges, but Spitzer's office maintained that the four remaining charges are the core of the State's original charges.
Greenberg's career is chronicled in the 2006 book Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of AIG.
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