Starr's Story
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Starr’s Story An Interview with Maurice R. Greenberg, Starr Companies EDITORS’ NOTE Maurice R. Greenberg is Chairman of Starr Companies, a global insurance and investment organiza- tion. Starr was founded by Cornelius Vander Starr in 1919 in Shanghai, China. Greenberg formed the American International Group, Inc. (AIG) as a Starr subsidiary, and served as that company’s Chairman and CEO until March 2005. Under his nearly 40 years of leadership, AIG grew from an initial market value of $300 million to $180 billion, becoming the largest insurance company in the world. He serves on the President’s Council on International Activities of Yale University, as Honorary Vice Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, as Vice Chairman of the National Committee on United States- China Relations, and as a member of the Board of the US-China Business Council. He is the past Chairman and Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Maurice R. Greenberg is active on the boards of many other civic and charitable organizations around and awarded the Bronze Star. He was COMPANY BRIEF Starr Companies the world. Greenberg has been especially awarded the French Ordre National de (starrcompanies.com) is a global, pri- active and committed to development in la Légion d’Honneur for his service on vately held insurance and investments Asia, taking his fi rst trip to China in 1975. D-Day on Omaha Beach in World War organization. Through its operating In 1990, he was appointed as Shanghai’s II. Greenberg is also the Chairman of The insurance companies, Starr Companies first Chairman of the International Starr Foundation, a philanthropic orga- provides commercial property and casu- Business Leaders’ Advisory Council by Zhu nization initially funded by Cornelius alty, and accident and health insurance Rongji, then Mayor. In 1994, Greenberg Vander Starr’s estate. Under his leader- products worldwide, with significant was appointed Senior Economic Advisor ship, the Starr Foundation has grown to access to the U.S. excess and surplus to the Beijing Municipal Government. become one of the largest private founda- marketplace for certain lines of busi- He was awarded “Honorary Citizen of tions in the United States. The Foundation ness. Starr Companies underwrites a Shanghai” in 1997. He is a Member of the has made more than $3 billion in grants wide variety of specialty and interna- Advisory Board of the Tsinghua School of worldwide to many academic, medical, tional lines including aviation, marine, Economics and Management, a Member cultural and public policy organizations energy, environmental, crisis manage- of the International Advisory Council around the world. Greenberg received his ment, and excess casualty insurance, of the China Development Research pre-law certifi cate from the University of accident and health, and political risk Foundation and China Development Miami and an LL.B. from New York Law insurance. Starr Companies also pro- Bank and numerous other distinguished School. He has been granted honorary vides a broad spectrum of insurance- Boards and academies. A decorated degrees from a number of institutions, related services, including claims United States Veteran, Greenberg served including New York Law School, Brown handling and settlement, reinsurance, in both World War II and the Korean University, Middlebury College, Bryant risk assessment, loss control and world- Confl ict, rising to the rank of Captain University and The Rockefeller University. wide travel assistance service. 8 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2018 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 41, NUMBER 2 China has come a long way in terms of technology and business acumen. It’s a growth story and we’re proud that our origins are there. Starr will celebrate its 100th anniver- him. C.V. Starr made friends very quickly Then the revolution against the sary in 2019, having been founded and the business grew. establishment in China began, so Starr in 1919 by Cornelius Vander Starr in He created the fi rst American owned had to leave China again and never Shanghai, China. Will you highlight insurance company in China, and it returned after that. However, many of the history and heritage of Starr and grew and operated throughout China. the people who worked for him ended what have been the keys to the lon- Subsequently, it spread into other parts up working in Starr’s Hong Kong offi ce gevity the company has enjoyed? of Asia. He built a large organization and elsewhere. After World War I, C.V. Starr trav- before World War II started, at which I joined Starr years after he returned eled East and wound up in China. time he had to leave China. to the U.S. The history is very rich and the He had studied law but had some The loyalty of his Chinese employ- loyalty to Starr was inspiring. However, knowledge about the insurance indus- ees was so strong that they were each his story of having established the fi rst try. In those days, if one worked in a allowed to take a piece of furniture American-owned insurance company in law fi rm, they typically didn’t have to home when he left China, leaving the China is not well known. do much more than just the law, but he offi ce bare. What did C.V. Starr see in China had an entrepreneurial spirit. When World War II ended, Starr that made him feel it provided such Starr arrived in Shanghai and wanted returned to restart the business. The a large opportunity? to start a business. He didn’t have much offi ce in China was reassembled in 24 It was a huge country with a large money so he borrowed from people he hours – the furniture was returned and population and it was clear that it would knew, one of whom became very close to business started again. be a wealthy country one day. He was well known in China and, when he left, he wasn’t sure that the communist party would ever be open as much as he hoped, so he never went back. I fi rst went to China in 1975 and I believed the country would not be kept out of the world trading system and would continue to be around for a long time. Shanghai was the home of the com- pany and there were branches in several different provinces. Shanghai was very popular back then, as it still is today. What was it about C.V. Starr’s talent and personality that attrib- uted to his success? He was smart and he understood the need for different types of insurance such as marine, life insurance and prop- erty casualty within a country. I originally joined him to build an accident and health business. He believed that after World War II, people would begin traveling more. He also knew McArthur quite well, which led to the company being established in Cornelius Vander Starr Tokyo after World War II. VOLUME 41, NUMBER 2 POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2018 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. LEADERS 9 We’re always looking for new opportunities, and product innovation is a high priority here. He was well known internation- Is there an effective under- When I joined Starr, it was not ally and was arguably the most success- standing in the marketplace today to go back to China – it was to help ful individual in the international about the global footprint and consolidate some of the businesses insurance world. capabilities of Starr’s business? we had and make those businesses He saw the opportunity in China very When C.V. Starr came back to the profi table. Starr owned American Home, early on. Overall, China is very impor- U.S. from China, he was trying to rebuild which was struggling in the U.S. I became tant, not just to our company, but to the an organization that had its roots in the head of the American Home, and we world – it’s the second-largest economy China. There was no point in him going had turned it around and it became one in the world today. I’m not sure anyone back to China at the time because he of the early companies in the newly cre- can keep it from being the number one couldn’t do business there. ated AIG. economy in the world. He was operating in Southeast AIG became the largest insur- China has come a long way in terms Asia, the U.S., and to a lesser degree ance company in history and the of technology and business acumen. It’s in Europe and Latin America. It was most successful. When we took it a growth story and we’re proud that our a diverse organization, but it was not public, it had a market value of $300 origins are there. million; when we left, it was How did your personal $180 billion. interest and involvement in What makes Starr different? China develop? We went back to China in When Starr left China, there 1975, but it took many years to get was a time during which we had a foothold. Eventually we did, and no presence in the country, so We’re proud that established a presence in the growth came from the companies property casualty business. Now, we owned and the beginnings of we’re celebrating 100 years of that business is growing in many AIG. I went back to China believ- provinces. ing that it would eventually be a What makes us different is that major market, but it took years being in business under the we’re not traditionalists – change is to get approval to reestablish a constant and, if we don’t recog- business there given that the com- name Starr.