World War I had just ended, and like most people, Cornelius Vander Starr had little money. Yet he used what he had to travel to China and start a small insurance company.

Over time, C.V. Starr & Co - now part of Starr Companies - has grown into a global insurance and investment services company, and next year will mark its 100th anniversary.

In the 1990s, under the leadership of Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, who became chairman and CEO upon Starr's death in 1968, the company became the first foreign business to receive a life insurance license in China. Since then, it has launched a broad spectrum of products and services.

Greenberg said the custom in China is to celebrate a major anniversary a year early, so Starr Companies began its centenary celebrations with an event in New York in June, with more to follow in its birthplace, Shanghai, next year.

"That's an important occasion. There's no American insurance company (in China) before we started. So we are very proud of that," he said in an interview in his Manhattan office.

Starr grew up in California and studied law before joining the United States Army. After leaving the service, in late 1919, he went to Shanghai and set up an insurance agency with help from Chinese bankers. It was the first American-owned company in China.

At the time, British and French insurance firms would only work with companies from their own country. They refused to insure Chinese companies, Greenberg said.

Starr did the exact opposite, he said. He insured Chinese companies and hired local employees. The agency grew and became a success, expanding to other parts of Asia.

The company moved its headquarters from Shanghai to New York in the 1930s after the Japanese invasion of China. When the war was over, Starr returned and the Shanghai office was re-established. However, the US businessman left again in 1949 and never returned.