Jeffrey Wayne Greenberg (born 1951) is an American lawyer and business executive, who was chairman and CEO of

Marsh & McLennan Companies Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., doing business as Marsh McLennan, is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, investme ...

from 1999 to 2004.

Early life and education

Greenberg was born the son of Corinne Phyllis (née Zuckerman) and

Maurice R. Greenberg Maurice Raymond “Hank” Greenberg (born May 4, 1925) is an American business executive and former chairman and chief executive officer of American International Group (AIG). Early life Greenberg was born into a Jewish family in Greenwich Vil ...

, the former chairman and CEO of

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. , AIG companies employed 49,600 people.https://www.aig.com/content/dam/aig/amer ...

(AIG). He attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. He earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1973 and a JD degree from

Georgetown University Law School The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

in 1976.

Career

He began his career at

Marsh & McLennan Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., doing business as Marsh McLennan, is a global professional services firm, headquartered in New York City with businesses in insurance brokerage, risk management, reinsurance services, talent management, investme ...

after graduation. During the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

, 295 staff member were killed. Greenberg was then in midtown Manhattan, at the company's headquarters, with "an unobstructed view of lower Manhattan" where he witnessed "smoke rising from

One World Trade Center One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ...

and the fireball erupt from the second tower." He then led the company's immediate response to the crisis. Greenberg resigned as CEO of Marsh & McLennan after the firm was charged with conducting a lucrative kickback scheme by then

New York State Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...

Eliot Spitzer,Staff report (January 10, 2005)
The Fallen Managers: Jeffrey Greenberg.
The Best & Worst Managers Of The Year. ''

Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' who demanded management changes, stating that "The leadership of that company is not a leadership I will talk to and not a leadership I will negotiate with." In 2012, the ''Financial Times'' reported that "Mr Greenberg was never charged with any wrongdoing, while Mr Spitzer was later engulfed in a prostitute scandal." Greenberg is chairman of the private equity firm he founded, Aquiline Holdings.Executive Profile: Jeffrey W. Greenberg J.D.
''

'' He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves as a trustee of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

, and has served as a member of Brown University's corporation. He has sat on the board of trustees of

New York-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

since 1998.

Personal life

Greenberg had a 14-year relationship with journalist

Nikki Finke Nikki Jean Finke (December 16, 1953 – October 9, 2022) was an American blogger, journalist, publisher, and writer. She was a consultant to Penske Business Media LLC and senior editorial contributor for PBM run by media owner Jay Penske. She f ...

, getting engaged in 1974 and married in 1980. The couple divorced in 1982.Divorce, Corporate American Style
Divorce, Corporate American Style
Divorce, Corporate American Style. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' He later remarried and has four children.

References

1951 births Living people Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Brown University alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews {{US-business-bio-1950s-stub