Greenberg was born in Wichita, Kansas but raised in Oklahoma City in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, one of three children of Theodore and Esther Greenberg. His father owned a woman's clothing store and was part of an extended family that operated clothing stores in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Greenberg first attended the University of Oklahoma on a football scholarship. After injuring his back, he transferred to the University of Missouri, from which he graduated with a B.A. in business in 1949. Greenberg pursued a career on Wall Street after college, accepting a position as a clerk at Bear Stearns for $32.50 per week.
Career
Greenberg rose through the ranks of Bear Stearns eventually serving as its CEO from 1978 to 1993 and Chairman of the Board from 1985 to 2001. Greenberg also served as a non-executive director of Viacom. He was the author of Memos from the Chairman, which is a compilation of memos he issued to the associates of Bear Stearns during his tenure as CEO. In 1969, Greenberg hired James Cayne as a stockbroker at Bear Stearns. In 1993, Greenberg was ousted and replaced as CEO by Cayne. Cayne served as CEO until January 2008 and was succeeded by Alan Schwartz, who oversaw the firm's demise in March 2008. While serving as chairman of the executive committee of Bear Stearns, Greenberg oversaw the collapse of the company in March 2008. He was subsequently involved in the talks with JPMorgan Chase which eventually bought out the failing company. Fortune reported that Greenberg agreed to join JPMC as vice chairman of Bear's retail business. Greenberg was the financier of Kaufman and Greenberg, a company he set up with Richard Kaufman to publish magic books.
"You do some nutty things," Greenberg stated and he told People that his wife Kathryn told him, "you've made your money, and you can spend it any way you want." That philanthropic gesture topped the time Greenberg paid to repair the bathrooms at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
His first wife was Ann Greenberg whom he divorced in 1976. They have two children:
*Lynne Koeppel who was the first woman to own a seat on the American Stock Exchange. She later gave up her seat to focus on raising her two children, Allison and Melissa Frey. In 1991, she divorced her first husband Jonathan Frey. Jonathan and her father, Alan Greenberg engaged in a very public lawsuit over unpaid interest on a loan Greenberg had made to Frey for the purchase of the newly married couple's first home. Greenberg eventually lost the lawsuit. Lynne is remarried to Caleb Koeppel, son of Alfred J. Koeppel.
