In 1990, Greenberg was appointed by
Zhu Rongji, then Mayor of
Shanghai, to be the first chairman of the International Business Leaders' Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai. He is a member of the
US-China Business Council, honorary chair of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation and is vice-chairman of the board of directors of the
National Committee on United States – China Relations. The Maurice "Hank" Greenberg Scholarship, administered in his name by the
US–China Education Trust, supports the studies of ten Chinese students from low-income families each year at
Yunnan University. Greenberg was presented the Friendship Medal for Contribution to China's Reform by President
Xi Jinping in 2018. Greenberg stated, "The deteriorating state of affairs between the U.S. has destabilized the most important bilateral relationship in the world," and the new group is intended to "help foster a meaningful but frank exchange between the U.S. and Chinese governments on issues of mutual concern." and chairman of the U.S.-Korea Business Council. Greenberg has served on the board of directors of the
New York Stock Exchange, the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, and the
Business Roundtable He was a director of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1988-1995 and served as its Chairman 1994-1995. Greenberg was vice chairman and director of the
Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the
Trilateral Commission. He is a former chairman and current trustee of the
Asia Society, a trustee emeritus of the
Rockefeller University and is an honorary trustee of the
Museum of Modern Art. Greenberg is chairman emeritus of the Board of Trustees of
New York-Presbyterian Hospital having joined the Board in 1979. He serves as a member of the board of overseers of the
Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, as a life trustee of
New York University, a trustee for the School of Risk Management, Insurance, and Actuarial Science and is the chairman of the Academic Medicine Development Company (AMDeC) Foundation. Greenberg also serves as a member of the President's Council on International Activities of
Yale University. and on the board of the
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. He is the former chairman of
The National Interest. He is on the board of directors of the
International Rescue Committee, is a former trustee of the
American Museum of Natural History and is active in a number of other civic and charitable organizations. As chairman of
The Starr Foundation, Greenberg oversees the disbursement of major financial support to academic, medical, cultural and public policy institutions.
Incident with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Greenberg gained visibility when he clashed with
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the Iranian president's
denial of the Holocaust. On September 20, 2006, the
Council on Foreign Relations hosted a small meeting of select council members with Ahmadinejad, who began by saying that we need to "continue studying" whether it happened. According to
David E. Sanger, Chief Washington Correspondent for
The New York Times, Greenberg listened for fifteen minutes while Ahmadinejad continued talking about the Palestinians, World War II, and if the Holocaust killings had happened at all. Sanger writes, "Then Hank Greenberg, who had been on a slow boil through the evening, spoke up. He had been a young soldier at the end of the war, and participated in the liberation of the camps. 'I went through Dachau in the war and saw with my own eyes. President Ahmadinejad responded by asking if Greenberg was old enough to have participated in the liberation of Dachau. "I'd like an answer regarding whether you think the Holocaust occurred," insisted Greenberg. To which Ahmadinejad replied "I think we should allow more impartial studies to be done on this." ==Political involvement==