netrashetty
Netra Shetty
American Financial Group Incorporated (NYSE: AFG) is a holding company based in Cincinnati, Ohio whose primary business is insurance and investments. American Financial Group's purpose is to enable businesses and individuals to manage risk using insurance products and services tailored to meet their specific needs.
American Financial Group's major insurance division operates as the Great American Insurance Company, founded in 1872 and focuses on property and casualty insurance services. Other affiliates and subsidiaries include American Custom, Mid Continent, National Interstate, Republic Indemnity. Additional insurance specialties include (but are not limited to) equine, trucking, executive liability, fidelity and crime, and agri-business. Great American Financial Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Financial Group and supplies a range of annuities, life insurance products and supplemental insurances to individuals and enterprises.
The parent company, AFG, is owned principally by financier Carl Lindner, Jr. and his family. Carl Lindner is Chairman of the Board of Directors of AFG. The senior Lindner's sons, Carl H. Lindner, III and S. Craig Lindner serve as Co-Chief Executive Officers.
American Financial Group was ranked 486th on the Fortune 500 list in 2004. Through the years American Financial Group has owned a number of subsidiaries, real estate properties, and companies, including The Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire, The Cincinnatian in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida, Le Pavillon in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina in Charleston, South Carolina. Great American Insurance Group partnered with the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, and Hamilton County to purchase naming rights for Great American Ball Park.
Carl Lindner, a Cincinnati businessman with international interests ranging from banking to bananas, is one of the nation's wealthiest men. His frequent, abundant contributions to political candidates and parties have put him at times in the public spotlight.
His friends defend his political giving as merely the generosity of a public spirited citizen. His critics suspect that his money buys him political access and influence. In either event, he is one of several large contributors at the center of the controversy over whether the American campaign-finance system is serving the public interest.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, he dropped out of high school to help run the family's ice-cream store when his father became ill. With a head for figures and a knack for financial deals, Lindner built the business into a chain of stores known as United Dairy Farmers. Today there are over 200 such stores run by his brother Robert. Dairy-store profits have fueled Lindner's investments in financial institutions. First, he acquired savings and loans companies and then diversified into the insurance business. Today he runs a corporate empire known as American Financial Group.
As chairman and chief executive of American Financial Group, Lindner presides over business assets worth $14 billion by his own reckoning. He is a former part owner of The Cincinnati Enquirer. He controls, among other businesses, Chiquita Brands bananas. Lindner has made a name for himself on Wall Street as an astute investor. He has a reputation for "bottom fishing" -- that is, buying a financially troubled or undervalued company at a bargain price and transforming it into a profitable enterprise. He was an important customer of "junk" bond king Michael Milken, who worked for the now-defunct investment banking firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert. For years American Financial employed a Cincinnati lawyer, Charles Keating, as corporate counsel and executive vice president. Lindner and Keating parted company, and Keating moved to Phoenix and gained notoriety in the 1980s as the man behind the multibillion-dollar failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan.
Mild-mannered and shy, Lindner routinely refuses reporters' requests for interviews. He has a habit of handing out little white cards with gold-embossed, folksy sayings on them. One reads: "I like to do my giving while I'm living so I'm knowing where it's going." He is a devout Baptist who says he does not smoke, drink or swear. In 1990, he led the opposition to a Cinncinnati exhibit of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. Later that year, he withheld his usual financial support to the arts fund he deemed responsible for the show. As a philanthropist, Lindner has been generous. He has estimated his contributions to various charities over the past 10 years at $60 million.
Lindner gives heavily to political campaigns. While his contributions in Cincinnati and Ohio heavily favor Republicans, in national races he gives generously to both sides. Since 1988, Lindner and his associates and companies have given $650,000 in soft money to the Democrats and $1.5 million to the Republicans, according to Common Cause, a Washington watchdog group. Lindner, his family, and business associates also make donations directly to politicians. Among them: $106,000 to George Bush's presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992; and $172,500 to Senator Robert Dole since 1980. In a field of the "top ten career patrons" of Senator Dole, Lindner ranks seventh, reports the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan Washington public interest research group. Dole has also made frequent use of private jets owned by the Lindner family -- twelve flights in 1995 alone, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Recently, Majority Leader Dole, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and members of the Clinton Administration have moved to help Chiquita open European markets to its bananas. For years, Chiquita grew lots of bananas throughout Latin America and was the largest supplier to Europe. Then in 1993, the European Union announced changes to its trade regulations on banana import quotas. Colombia and Costa Rica agreed to this new European "banana plan" and were key to making it work. Chiquita said because of this new policy, which it claims violated trade laws, sales and profits dropped.
Although there are relatively few US jobs at stake, Lindner has managed to bring his "banana problem" to the top of our national agenda. The Clinton Administration investigated the idea of imposing trade sanctions against Colombia and Costa Rica, and Bob Dole pushed the issue in Congress. In January of this year, US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor concluded his year-long investigation of the European banana trade dispute and determined that Costa Rica and Colombia's trade agreements with the Europeans are "unfair." Despite Chiquita's lobbying, the US has decided for the time being not to impose retaliatory sanctions against the two countries, instead pressuring the Europeans to open their banana market to free trade.
Carl H. Lindner is Chairman of the Board, founder and principal shareholder of American Financial Group, Inc. He is Chairman of the Board of Great American Financial Resources, Inc. and the Great American Insurance Group. Mr. Lindner began working in 1940 in his family's Norwood, Ohio cash-and-carry dairy market. That store was the origin of the Lindner family's United Dairy Farmers, Inc. convenience store chain and launched Mr. Lindner's career as self-made businessman and entrepreneur.
Mr. Lindner, a lifetime resident of Cincinnati, has contributed significantly to the economic and cultural lives of his fellow Cincinnatians. Besides creating thousands of Cincinnati-based jobs by headquartering his enterprises in the area, Mr. Lindner has donated his time and business acumen to many Cincinnati educational, cultural and civic organizations. Mr. Lindner has served on the Board of Advisors to the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration, on the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Museum, the Board of Overseers of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Commercial Club of Cincinnati and the Citizens for a Better Cincinnati.
Mr. Lindner is a generous financial benefactor of numerous local educational and cultural institutions. Mr. Lindner's financial support was instrumental in establishing the Carl H. Lindner Family Center for Reproduction of Endangered Wildlife at the Cincinnati Zoo, as well as Lindner Park, a public recreational facility in Norwood, Ohio, the Carl and Edith Lindner Ice Age Exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center, and the Carl Lindner Family Tennis Pavilion at Sawyer Point. He and his wife, Edith Lindner, are also the major benefactors of Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.
Mr. Lindner is recognized in Cincinnati for his generosity and has received a number of honors and rewards in recognition of his philanthropy and community involvement. The University of Cincinnati has recognized his significant contributions to the College of Business Administration by awarding Mr. Lindner with an honorary degree of Doctor of Commercial Science. In 1985 the University of Cincinnati (UC) again recognized Mr. Lindner with the dedication of Carl H. Lindner Hall and the creation of the Carl H. Lindner Medal for Outstanding Business Achievement awarded annually. In 1991, Xavier University awarded Mr. Lindner with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities and dedicated the Carl H. Lindner Family Physics Building, the final facility completing Xavier's Science Center. In 1994 the City of Cincinnati recognized Mr. Lindner as a Great Living Cincinnatian. In 1997 the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati presented Mr. Lindner with its prestigious Heritage Award. Mr. Lindner has been named a "Beacon of Light Humanitarian" by the Cincinnati-based Lighthouse Youth Services. He was recently inducted to the Greater Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame. Mr. Lindner is a 33rd degree Mason.
Mr. Lindner is the father of Carl H. Lindner III, S. Craig Lindner and Keith E. Lindner, who work together daily as partners in their various business interests.
American Financial Group's major insurance division operates as the Great American Insurance Company, founded in 1872 and focuses on property and casualty insurance services. Other affiliates and subsidiaries include American Custom, Mid Continent, National Interstate, Republic Indemnity. Additional insurance specialties include (but are not limited to) equine, trucking, executive liability, fidelity and crime, and agri-business. Great American Financial Resources is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Financial Group and supplies a range of annuities, life insurance products and supplemental insurances to individuals and enterprises.
The parent company, AFG, is owned principally by financier Carl Lindner, Jr. and his family. Carl Lindner is Chairman of the Board of Directors of AFG. The senior Lindner's sons, Carl H. Lindner, III and S. Craig Lindner serve as Co-Chief Executive Officers.
American Financial Group was ranked 486th on the Fortune 500 list in 2004. Through the years American Financial Group has owned a number of subsidiaries, real estate properties, and companies, including The Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire, The Cincinnatian in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Biltmore in Coral Gables, Florida, Le Pavillon in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina in Charleston, South Carolina. Great American Insurance Group partnered with the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, and Hamilton County to purchase naming rights for Great American Ball Park.
Carl Lindner, a Cincinnati businessman with international interests ranging from banking to bananas, is one of the nation's wealthiest men. His frequent, abundant contributions to political candidates and parties have put him at times in the public spotlight.
His friends defend his political giving as merely the generosity of a public spirited citizen. His critics suspect that his money buys him political access and influence. In either event, he is one of several large contributors at the center of the controversy over whether the American campaign-finance system is serving the public interest.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, he dropped out of high school to help run the family's ice-cream store when his father became ill. With a head for figures and a knack for financial deals, Lindner built the business into a chain of stores known as United Dairy Farmers. Today there are over 200 such stores run by his brother Robert. Dairy-store profits have fueled Lindner's investments in financial institutions. First, he acquired savings and loans companies and then diversified into the insurance business. Today he runs a corporate empire known as American Financial Group.
As chairman and chief executive of American Financial Group, Lindner presides over business assets worth $14 billion by his own reckoning. He is a former part owner of The Cincinnati Enquirer. He controls, among other businesses, Chiquita Brands bananas. Lindner has made a name for himself on Wall Street as an astute investor. He has a reputation for "bottom fishing" -- that is, buying a financially troubled or undervalued company at a bargain price and transforming it into a profitable enterprise. He was an important customer of "junk" bond king Michael Milken, who worked for the now-defunct investment banking firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert. For years American Financial employed a Cincinnati lawyer, Charles Keating, as corporate counsel and executive vice president. Lindner and Keating parted company, and Keating moved to Phoenix and gained notoriety in the 1980s as the man behind the multibillion-dollar failure of Lincoln Savings & Loan.
Mild-mannered and shy, Lindner routinely refuses reporters' requests for interviews. He has a habit of handing out little white cards with gold-embossed, folksy sayings on them. One reads: "I like to do my giving while I'm living so I'm knowing where it's going." He is a devout Baptist who says he does not smoke, drink or swear. In 1990, he led the opposition to a Cinncinnati exhibit of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. Later that year, he withheld his usual financial support to the arts fund he deemed responsible for the show. As a philanthropist, Lindner has been generous. He has estimated his contributions to various charities over the past 10 years at $60 million.
Lindner gives heavily to political campaigns. While his contributions in Cincinnati and Ohio heavily favor Republicans, in national races he gives generously to both sides. Since 1988, Lindner and his associates and companies have given $650,000 in soft money to the Democrats and $1.5 million to the Republicans, according to Common Cause, a Washington watchdog group. Lindner, his family, and business associates also make donations directly to politicians. Among them: $106,000 to George Bush's presidential campaigns in 1988 and 1992; and $172,500 to Senator Robert Dole since 1980. In a field of the "top ten career patrons" of Senator Dole, Lindner ranks seventh, reports the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan Washington public interest research group. Dole has also made frequent use of private jets owned by the Lindner family -- twelve flights in 1995 alone, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Recently, Majority Leader Dole, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and members of the Clinton Administration have moved to help Chiquita open European markets to its bananas. For years, Chiquita grew lots of bananas throughout Latin America and was the largest supplier to Europe. Then in 1993, the European Union announced changes to its trade regulations on banana import quotas. Colombia and Costa Rica agreed to this new European "banana plan" and were key to making it work. Chiquita said because of this new policy, which it claims violated trade laws, sales and profits dropped.
Although there are relatively few US jobs at stake, Lindner has managed to bring his "banana problem" to the top of our national agenda. The Clinton Administration investigated the idea of imposing trade sanctions against Colombia and Costa Rica, and Bob Dole pushed the issue in Congress. In January of this year, US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor concluded his year-long investigation of the European banana trade dispute and determined that Costa Rica and Colombia's trade agreements with the Europeans are "unfair." Despite Chiquita's lobbying, the US has decided for the time being not to impose retaliatory sanctions against the two countries, instead pressuring the Europeans to open their banana market to free trade.
Carl H. Lindner is Chairman of the Board, founder and principal shareholder of American Financial Group, Inc. He is Chairman of the Board of Great American Financial Resources, Inc. and the Great American Insurance Group. Mr. Lindner began working in 1940 in his family's Norwood, Ohio cash-and-carry dairy market. That store was the origin of the Lindner family's United Dairy Farmers, Inc. convenience store chain and launched Mr. Lindner's career as self-made businessman and entrepreneur.
Mr. Lindner, a lifetime resident of Cincinnati, has contributed significantly to the economic and cultural lives of his fellow Cincinnatians. Besides creating thousands of Cincinnati-based jobs by headquartering his enterprises in the area, Mr. Lindner has donated his time and business acumen to many Cincinnati educational, cultural and civic organizations. Mr. Lindner has served on the Board of Advisors to the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration, on the Board of Trustees of the Cincinnati Fine Arts Museum, the Board of Overseers of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Commercial Club of Cincinnati and the Citizens for a Better Cincinnati.
Mr. Lindner is a generous financial benefactor of numerous local educational and cultural institutions. Mr. Lindner's financial support was instrumental in establishing the Carl H. Lindner Family Center for Reproduction of Endangered Wildlife at the Cincinnati Zoo, as well as Lindner Park, a public recreational facility in Norwood, Ohio, the Carl and Edith Lindner Ice Age Exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center, and the Carl Lindner Family Tennis Pavilion at Sawyer Point. He and his wife, Edith Lindner, are also the major benefactors of Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.
Mr. Lindner is recognized in Cincinnati for his generosity and has received a number of honors and rewards in recognition of his philanthropy and community involvement. The University of Cincinnati has recognized his significant contributions to the College of Business Administration by awarding Mr. Lindner with an honorary degree of Doctor of Commercial Science. In 1985 the University of Cincinnati (UC) again recognized Mr. Lindner with the dedication of Carl H. Lindner Hall and the creation of the Carl H. Lindner Medal for Outstanding Business Achievement awarded annually. In 1991, Xavier University awarded Mr. Lindner with an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities and dedicated the Carl H. Lindner Family Physics Building, the final facility completing Xavier's Science Center. In 1994 the City of Cincinnati recognized Mr. Lindner as a Great Living Cincinnatian. In 1997 the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati presented Mr. Lindner with its prestigious Heritage Award. Mr. Lindner has been named a "Beacon of Light Humanitarian" by the Cincinnati-based Lighthouse Youth Services. He was recently inducted to the Greater Cincinnati Business Hall of Fame. Mr. Lindner is a 33rd degree Mason.
Mr. Lindner is the father of Carl H. Lindner III, S. Craig Lindner and Keith E. Lindner, who work together daily as partners in their various business interests.