The AIG Story

The AIG Story first chronicles the origins of the company and its relentless pioneering of open markets everywhere in the world from 1970 to 2005. It then explores how the company faltered after it adopted a one-size-fits-all corporate governance structure that turned the company upside down and put it at the center of the 2008 financial crisis where the authorities seized upon it as both scapegoat and solution to the crisis. Produced based on a combination of co-author Hank Greenberg's personal involvement and the craftsmanship and objective writing of Professor Lawrence Cunningham, this book:

• Corrects common misconceptions about AIG that arose due to its role at the center of the financial crisis of 2008.
• Portrays one of the iconic businesses of the twentieth century which developed close relationships with many of the most important world leaders of the period and helped to open markets everywhere.
• Opens 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 confidential information publicly for the first time.

The AIG Story captures an impressive saga in business history--one of innovation, vision and leadership at a company that was almost 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.

• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  
  Hank Greenberg: Chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr & Co., which he joined as vice president in 1960, becoming a director in 1965 and Chairman and CEO in 1968.  From 1967 until 2005, he was CEO of American International Group, which grew during that period from a scattered collection of insurance businesses worth about $300 million to the largest insurance company in world history, worth more than $180 billion.  After he left AIG, the company's new leadership embarked on a radical transformation that put the company at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis and nearly destroyed it.  He has been among the most active and influential international business executives in history.
  
  Lawrence Cunningham: the Henry St. George Tucker III Research Professor at George Washington University Law School and Director of GW's Center for Law, Economics and Finance (C-LEAF) in New York.  He is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Contracts in the Real World: Stories of Popular Contracts and Why They Matter.  His research appears in leading university journals, including those published by Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Michigan, Vanderbilt and Virginia; op-eds have run in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Financial Times. On Amazon, Cunningham has been ranked one of the top 100 authors in the category of business and investing.