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In The AIG Story, the company's long-term CEO Hank Greenberg (1967 to 2005) and GW professor and corporate governance expert Lawrence Cunningham chronicle the origins of the company and its relentless pioneering of open markets everywhere in the world. They regale readers with riveting vignettes of how AIG grew from a modest group of insurance enterprises in 1970 to the largest insurance company in world history. They help us understand AIG's distinctive entrepreneurial culture and how its outstanding employees worldwide helped pave the road to globalization.
- Corrects numerous common misconceptions about AIG that arose due to its role at the center of the financial crisis of 2008.
- A unique account of AIG by one of the iconic business leaders of the twentieth century who developed close relationships with many of the most important world leaders of the period and helped to open markets everywhere
- Offers new critical perspective on battles with N. Y. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the 2008 U.S. government seizure of AIG amid the financial crisis
- Shares considerable information not previously made public
The AIG Story captures an impressive saga in business history--one of innovation, vision and leadership at a company that was nearly--destroyed with a few strokes of governmental pens. The AIG Story carries important lessons and implications for the U.S., especially its role in international affairs, its approach to business, its legal system and its handling of financial crises.
Chairman’s Note xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
Part One
Chapter 1 Independence 3
Chapter 2 Innovation 19
Chapter 3 Succession 31
Chapter 4 Vision and Culture 43
Chapter 5 The Internationalist 53
Chapter 6 Raising the Iron Curtain 63
Chapter 7 Opening Trade in Services 79
Chapter 8 Reopening China 95
Chapter 9 The Life Business 111
Chapter 10 The Domestic Front 125
Chapter 11 Investments 139
Chapter 12 Governance 149
Part Two
Interlude 167
Chapter 13 Hostile Change 171
Chapter 14 Restating History 189
Chapter 15 Civil War 203
Chapter 16 Saving the Starr Foundation 213
Chapter 17 Chaos 223
Chapter 18 Nationalization 243
Epilogue 261
Notes 265
About the Companion Web Site 309
About the Authors 311
Index 313
Maurice R. Greenberg is Chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. He joined C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. 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 & Co., Inc. in 1965, Chairman and CEO in 1968 and continues in that role. Mr. Greenberg retired as Chairman and CEO of American International Group, Inc. (AIG) in March 2005, after serving as Chief Executive Officer from 1967. Under his leadership, AIG became the largest insurance company in the world and generated unprecedented value for AIG shareholders. During the nearly forty years of his leadership, AIG's market value grew from $300 million to $l80 billion.
Lawrence A. Cunningham is the Henry St. George Tucker III Research Professor at the George Washington University Law School and Director of GW's Center for Law, Economics and Finance (C-LEAF) in New York. Previous books includeContracts in the Real World: Stories of Popular Contracts and Why They Matter (Cambridge University Press 2012). His writings—on a wide range of business and legal topics—have also appeared in leading scholarly journals and such periodicals as the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the New York Daily News.
" Did the U.S. government break the law when it seized control of American International Group during the financial crisis of 2008? In 'The AIG Story,' the man who built the giant insurer says that the answer is yes and explains his reasoning. Former AIG chief executive Maurice R. 'Hank' Greenberg—along with his co-author, Lawrence A. Cunningham—also offers a fascinating company history and an account of how, after Mr. Greenberg’s ouster in 2005, AIG made the disastrous mortgage bets that drove it into the arms of the feds."—The Wall Street Journal
"[A] strong, fast-moving and well-crafted book...In effect, there are two stories here, both well told: the first, the story of a man who dreamed the American dream and realized it through drive, determination, and adherence to principle; and the second, the story of what seems to be an evolving model, with government officials, always for political reasons, exercising what increasingly approaches operational control over American business. It’s to the great credit of Greenberg that he’s never accepted the validity of the second and has devoted his life and great energies to keeping the first alive and well."—The National Interest
