Maurice "Hank" Greenberg

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg joined AIG in 1962 and built it over 38 years into the world's largest insurance company with operations in over 130 countries. Under his leadership, AIG expanded from property-casualty insurance into life insurance, financial guarantees, aircraft leasing, and — fatefully — credit default swaps through its Financial Products division. This diversification created enormous earnings in good times but concentrated catastrophic risk that became apparent during the 2008 financial crisis, when AIG required an $85 billion government bailout (eventually totaling $182 billion) after its credit derivative positions collapsed. Greenberg was ousted from AIG in 2005 following an SEC investigation into accounting irregularities, though he was never convicted. He fought the circumstances of his removal and the government's handling of the AIG bailout for years, arguing that the bailout terms were unjust to shareholders. His tenure represents both the extraordinary achievement of building a global insurance colossus and a cautionary tale about conglomerate complexity and derivative risk concentration.