How 84-Year Old Insurance CEO Greenberg Stays In Fighting Shape

Veteran insurance executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg bristles ever so slightly when asked about his upcoming 85th birthday.

“There are two types of birthdays — chronological and biological. Doctors tell me biologically I am 25 years younger,” the former AIG chief executive, who is now the insurer’s biggest private shareholder, says with a smile.

Greenberg, who turns 85 in May, said a daily lunch of salad and a strict no-meat, no-dairy diet at home (his wife Corinne is a vegan) keep him fighting fit.

He also works out pretty much daily in his home gym, and makes a weekly visit to New York gym “Serious Strength”, where he follows a regimen of weight-bearing exercises.

During an interview in his Park Avenue office this week, Greenberg, who ran AIG for four decades, expressed eagerness to move forward with what could be a marathon project — lobbying the government to take steps to eliminate much of the debt AIG incurred when it took a $180 billion bailout.

“I’m doing all the things that I have always done,” said Greenberg. “You can interpret that in many ways,” he laughs.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill; Editing by Ted Kerr)