Cornelius Vander Starr

Overview

Cornelius Vander Starr, also known as Neil Starr or C.V. Starr (October 15, 1892 – December 20, 1968), was an American businessman and philanthropist best known for founding C.V. Starr & Co. in Shanghai, China, in 1919, which later evolved into the insurance giant American International Group (AIG). Born in Fort Bragg, California, to parents of Dutch ancestry, Starr’s father was a railroad engineer. His early life was marked by entrepreneurial spirit and a drive for global exploration. After briefly attending the University of California, Berkeley (1910–1911), he dropped out and returned to Fort Bragg, where he started his first business selling ice cream at age 19. In 1918, he joined the U.S. Army but was not deployed overseas due to the end of World War I. His desire to travel led him to work as a clerk for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in Yokohama, Japan, before moving to Shanghai, where he founded American Asiatic Underwriters (later American International Underwriters), the precursor to AIG. Forced to relocate to New York in 1939 due to Japan’s invasion of China, Starr built AIG into the world’s largest insurance company, growing from a $300 million market value to $180 billion. Beyond business, Starr was a philanthropist, establishing the C.V. Starr Foundation in 1955, which has since donated over $3.8 billion to causes in education, healthcare, culture, and public policy. He died in New York City in 1968, leaving his residuary estate to the foundation.

Starr Companies

In 1919 he founded what was then known as AIA Group American Asiatic Underwriters (later American International Underwriters) in Shanghai, China, a global insurance and investment organization. He was forced to move his operation to New York in 1939, when Japan invaded China.

CIA and OSS Connections

Starr’s involvement with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor to the CIA, during World War II is a significant aspect of his career, reflecting his role in intelligence and geopolitical strategy. In 1943, Starr collaborated with William J. Donovan, the head of the OSS, to establish the OSS Insurance Intelligence Unit, a secretive operation that leveraged the global reach of the insurance industry to gather intelligence. This unit, part of the OSS’s elite counterintelligence branch X-2, utilized insurance data to identify strategic targets, such as factories, bridges, and cargo ships critical to the Axis powers, particularly Nazi Germany. The unit’s work provided critical information, including pothole counts for invasion routes and population data for targeted areas, aiding Allied efforts to disrupt enemy operations.

Starr also served as the chief operative supporting Claire Chennault, a former U.S. Army Air Force officer who led the OSS-backed American Volunteer Group, known as the “Flying Tigers.” This group conducted covert operations against Japanese forces in China without a formal declaration of war, aiming to bolster Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government against Japanese aggression. Starr and the OSS later supported Chiang over Communist leader Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War, reflecting Starr’s alignment with U.S. anti-communist efforts in Asia.

After World War II, Starr’s OSS connections continued to influence his business. He hired OSS captain Duncan Lee, a lawyer, as AIG’s long-term general counsel, a move that strengthened the company’s ties to U.S. intelligence networks. When Mao’s Communist forces advanced on Shanghai in 1949, Starr relocated AIG’s headquarters to New York City, a decision likely informed by his intelligence background and geopolitical foresight.