The Aig Story, + Website - Hardcover

by Maurice R. Greenberg (Author), Lawrence A. Cunningham (Author)

Selected as one of Motley Fool's "5 Great Books You Should Read"

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.

Front Jacket

In this gripping read, AIG's legendary CEO of forty years, Hank Greenberg, and corporate governance expert, Lawrence Cunningham, relate the complete, inside story of the rise and near-destruction of AIG. And it is a story extremely well told. Readers are regaled with tales from Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg's firsthand experience at AIG, combined with Cunningham's additional research and interviews.

Not another self-serving business biography or dry corporate history, The AIG Story is a business adventure. In a well-crafted narrative, it tells the story of Greenberg, the free market visionary who, through his legendary genius for risk management, unsurpassed organizational skill and sheer tenacity, transformed a scattered collection of insurance businesses into American International Group, a global financial colossus with nearly $1 trillion in assets on its balance sheets--and how, in the process, he revolutionized the insurance industry.

At the same time, he AIG Story is a fascinating account of the world's rough ride toward globalization and the triumph of free and open markets over communism, nationalism, protectionism, and isolationism, and the significant role Greenberg and AIG played in that victory.

Integral to the story is the authors' well-informed take on the 2008 global financial crisis and AIG's part in it. Greenberg and Cunningham explain how, in 2005, beset by an army of overzealous lawyers and ambitious politicians--foremost among them, then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer--AIG was seriously wounded. And Greenberg and Cunningham describe how, three years later, in 2008, in an effort to save Wall Street from its own vices, the U.S. Government seized AIG, using it to funnel staggering amounts of bailout money to Goldman Sachs and other "too-big-to-fail" banks. Through Greenberg's direct involvement and Cunningham's craftsmanship, The AIG Story reveals much about those events which, until now, has been kept hidden from the public.

The only firsthand account of American International Group's rise and near-destruction, The AIG Story is both the compelling chronicle of one of the great business success stories of the twentieth century and a captivating history of the evolution of global capitalism over the past six decades.

Back Jacket

In this gripping read, AIG's legendary CEO of forty years, Hank Greenberg, and corporate governance expert, Lawrence Cunningham, relate the complete, inside story of the rise and near-destruction of AIG. And it is a story extremely well told. Readers are regaled with tales from Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg's firsthand experience at AIG, combined with Cunningham's additional research and interviews.

Not another self-serving business biography or dry corporate history, The AIG Story is a business adventure. In a well-crafted narrative, it tells the story of Greenberg, the free market visionary who, through his legendary genius for risk management, unsurpassed organizational skill and sheer tenacity, transformed a scattered collection of insurance businesses into American International Group, a global financial colossus with nearly $1 trillion in assets on its balance sheets--and how, in the process, he revolutionized the insurance industry.

At the same time, The AIG Story is a fascinating account of the world's rough ride toward globalization and the triumph of free and open markets over communism, nationalism, protectionism, and isolationism, and the significant role Greenberg and AIG played in that victory.

Integral to the story is the authors' well-informed take on the 2008 global financial crisis and AIG's part in it. Greenberg and Cunningham explain how, in 2005, beset by an army of overzealous lawyers and ambitious politicians--foremost among them, then New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer--AIG was seriously wounded. And Greenberg and Cunningham describe how, three years later, in 2008, in an effort to save Wall Street from its own vices, the U.S. Government seized AIG, using it to funnel staggering amounts of bailout money to Goldman Sachs and other "too-big-to-fail" banks. Through Greenberg's direct involvement and Cunningham's craftsmanship, The AIG Story reveals much about those events which, until now, has been kept hidden from the public.

The only firsthand account of American International Group's rise and near-destruction, The AIG Story is both the compelling chronicle of one of the great business success stories of the twentieth century and a captivating history of the evolution of global capitalism over the past six decades.

Author Biography

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 include Contracts 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.