greenberg & cunningham - the aig story (2013)

[...]... business I want to be sure that the record is complete about the building and near-destruction of AIG so I asked Lawrence Cunningham to collaborate with me to produce the book you are reading It is a story of the building of AIG, along with the unvarnished facts of what occurred at AIG in a brief period of time after I was forced to leave The U.S government nationalized AIG despite there being so many alternatives... pass the offices of the Continental Casualty Company, among the largest insurance companies of the day Greenberg popped his head into the office to ask about job openings The personnel manager acted as if he had no time for the inquiry, giving Greenberg, barely out of uniform, the cold shoulder Stoking his anger about how Americans largely ignored the Korean War, Greenberg stormed into the office of the. .. written The contest capitalized on having developed an effective worldwide team of salesmen and underwriters for the global accident and health group Among numerous regional prizes, the grand c01 18 December 2012; 14:17:40 12 THE AIG STORY prize was a 10-day, all-expenses-paid trip for two to New York and the 1964 World’s Fair During the contest, Greenberg visited competing offices in the Far East, Southeast... at the heart of it were the contracts made by AIG s financial products division during the three and one-half years after Greenberg s departure Mortgage-backed securities that financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs had warranted to AIG as “super senior” and rated AAA by the fpref 19 December 2012; 9:0:34 xviii THE AIG STORY rating agencies were in fact super toxic and almost worthless at the. .. building AIG There is no intention to chronicle day-to-day events, to be exhaustive, or to catalog all accomplishments, setbacks, or errors The book aims to capture some of the excitement of building AIG; convey a sense of its distinctive strategies and culture; and identify some of the factors that caused its near-destruction Hank Greenberg led the building of AIG over a span of 40 years These are... help him tell them, Greenberg asked Cunningham to collaborate in producing this book The two spent several hundred hours together in more than 100 meetings or phone calls developing it Based on these, Cunningham helped shape the narrative and architecture of the book, conducted research and interviews, and drafted the text Greenberg, during this time, was busy serving as chairman and CEO of the Starr Companies,... during my tenure at the company I sought to warn the new management about the dangers of the changes they had implemented, but my overtures were rebuffed When the financial crisis of 2008 blew up, AIG was at the heart of it The government took control of the company and used it as a funnel to move capital to a dozen other financial institutions in “backdoor” bailouts C.V Starr & Co., a much older company... insurance executives Others resented the hiring of Greenberg directly into the top ranks at c01 18 December 2012; 14:17:40 Independence 9 C V Starr & Company They thought he should have to work his way up the ladder, starting out at the AIU or AIRCO Starr gave Greenberg a free hand to build the global accident and health insurance business Greenberg chose Japan as his first market There he would be assisted... Those alternatives would have led to a soft landing rather than the turmoil that ensued M R G fbetw 18 December 2012; 21:5:54 Preface T he three-word name of the company starring in this book, American International Group, defines both the company and the book: a U.S business, operating everywhere in the world, glued together by AIG s people The AIG Story contributes instructive lessons drawn from its... December 1960 left Chicago, selling the family car on the way to the train station for the trip home to New York Other executives at C V Starr & Company and the AIU had mixed feelings about this new hire Most, such as the towering Englishman Edwin A G (“Jimmy”) Manton, president of the AIU, the flagship overseas operation, thought Greenberg was just another idiosyncratic Starr recruit Although Starr certainly . 97 8-1 -1 1 8-5 195 8-5 (ebk) – ISBN 97 8-1 -1 1 8-5 195 4-7 (ebk) – ISBN 97 8-1 -1 1 8-5 195 7-8 (ebk) 1. American International Group, Inc. 2. Insurance companies–United States. 3. Insurance companies. I. Cunningham, . Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Greenberg, Maurice R. The AIG story / Maurice R. Greenberg and Lawrence A. Cunningham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 97 8-1 -1 1 8-3 458 7-0 (cloth). 19 December 2012; 18:9:9 THE AIG STORY ffirs 19 December 2012; 8:58:15 ffirs 19 December 2012; 8:58:15 THE AIG STORY MAURICER .GREENBERG LAWRENCE A. CUNNINGHAM John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ffirs 19