Greg Lindberg

Greg Lindberg is an American business owner and founder of the Global Growth Family of Companies. More about Greg Lindberg at https://www.greglindberg.com

Education and Early Life

Greg was born in San Mateo, CA in 1970, the youngest of five children. His father was an airline pilot and his mother was a homemaker. He started a high school newspaper the Gryphon’s Tale at Crystal Springs Uplands School in Hillsborough CA and later graduated cum laude. While a freshman at Yale University Greg founded Eli Magazine, a political satire magazine. Later at Yale, Greg started the company that would become the Global Growth group of companies. In 1991 he launched Home Care Week, a reimbursement newsletter for home health agencies that one Global Growth company still publishes today. Greg graduated from Yale magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with an honors economics degree in 1993.

The founding theme of the high school newspaper, the undergraduate college magazine, and Home Care Week newsletter was Greg’s love of the written word. His earliest inspirations were publishers like William Randolph Hearst. He got the idea to start a newsletter company from Howard Ruff who published the Ruff Times, a newsletter that his mother subscribed to.

From Greg’s roots as a publisher, he is a strong believer in the freedom of the press and the freedom of the people in the jurisdictions where Global Growth operate.

Career

Greg has “been in the arena” for over 28 years building the companies that make up what is known today as the Global Growth family of companies. He started a small health insurance compliance and reimbursement newsletter business with $5,000 in 1991 that became the predecessor company to Global Growth.

Greg has completed over 125 acquisitions across the services and knowledge-based sectors of the global economy generating a 35 percent compound annual growth rate on equity capital.

Greg has made investments in Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, Central America, Hong Kong, Australia and the Middle East. In all of these global endeavors he has followed the advice of Teddy Roosevelt, and has been one who is “actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood.”

Greg has overcome and survived a brain tumor, and, is currently fighting unjust charges stemming from a political opponent, fighting false and defamatory media reports, and fighting for a sound future for his insurance businesses despite rapid and unforeseen changes in insurance regulation.

Greg is also an active philanthropist who donates to food banks, created a multi-million dollar scholarship program for HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges & Universities), and funded research for and UNC project focused on vaccine issues.

The Global Growth Model

Since its beginnings, Global Growth has embraced a contrarian, decentralized business model. “We partner with great leaders and step out of their way,” says Lindberg. Global Growth companies are autonomous and independent. Global Growth sets high expectations for leaders, and they meet them. Global Growth corporate headquarters, under Greg Lindberg’s leadership, is small and will stay that way. “We don’t want our businesses looking to ‘HQ’ for leadership,” says Greg Lindberg. “We want to empower leadership and ownership thinking at all levels: sales person as leader, telemarketer as leader, customer service rep as leader.”

Global Growth invests for the long term and invests capital in growth industries around the world with the proprietary investment origination capacity that Global Growth builds “in house.”

Global Growth uses a buy and hold, permanent capital model to invest a significant percentage of its’ capital in companies that add to the greater good with an emphasis in health care, technology, and financial services worldwide.

Philanthropy

In June 2018, Greg gave $50,000 donation to UNC School of Medicine support research that may help determine the best time to inform parents about the value of vaccinating children. Greg provided the necessary resources to advance current knowledge on this critical issue.“Investing in this important research at UNC School of Medicine is in keeping with Eli Global’s commitment to support initiatives that improve health and well-being across the age spectrum,” said Lindberg.

In April 2018, Greg donated $50,000 to The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. The donation enabled the Food Bank to purchase an additional 250,000 pounds of fresh produce.

Greg has also funded ground breaking fundamental and applied scientific research and clinical studies related to human longevity and to the treatment of advanced Parkinson’s disease.

In the News

Greg Lindberg has made numerous, non-partisan political donations to both Republican and Democrats but overall has become one of the largest donors to North Carolina Republicans.

Starting Oct 2018 to present, Lindberg has been embattled in court to fight charges of bribery and fraud. Lindberg has been gracious and overly cooperative with federal and state agents throughout the entire process. The government’s entire case against Greg E. Lindberg turns on a legally flawed understanding of what constitutes an “official act.” According to the government, requesting a personnel move is an official act giving rise to federal criminal liability even when the defendant in no way requested an ultimate outcome on any matter or proceeding that may in the future be pending before the government. ^[5]

Since the indictment, Lindberg has been the target of one-sided reporting from the Wall Street Journal and has been specifically targeted by journalist, Mark Maremont. The Wall Street Journal reported numerous unchecked stories and omitted actual facts pertaining to Lindberg.

On July 20, 2018, WRAL published an article about Lindberg and his donation of $1 million to a scholarship program for business students at North Carolina HBCUs, organizers said Friday. Full article can be found here.

On March 1, 2019, Aaron Tobin, counsel to Greg E. Lindberg, issued the following statement in response to media and other inquiries regarding the February 28, Wall Street Journal article[1]:

“The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article contains numerous inaccuracies and errors in fact”.  As Mr. Tobin wrote to the assistant general counsel of the WSJ last night: Lindberg did not "divert" $2 billion into his alleged private empire, No money was ever invested in "insolvent" affiliates, and Mr. Tobin also noted that the WSJ was given the information below over a week ago however chose to omit these important facts when publishing their story.  See full article here.

March 3, 2019. Mr. Lindberg’s colleagues and representatives spent weeks answering detailed questions in response to a Wall Street Journal article . Unfortunately, key facts were omitted from the story, such as . See full article here.

On Oct. 3, 2019, Robert Gaddy, President of Apex International, LLC, issued a statement as a rebuttal for a Wall Street Journal article shocker piece that sought to vilify Lindberg and shed Lindberg’s personal life in a negative light.  Gaddy stated: "The Wall Street Journal story published today appears to be based on Jeffrey Serber, a disgruntled ex-employee of the firm who was terminated and was sued for breach of contract, theft, misappropriation, fraud and for making representations that falsified his military record. What he has apparently told reporters at the Wall Street Journal is no more credible than the resume he gave us and subsequent claims he made about his experience. The result is an unfair story containing numerous inaccuracies based largely on unsubstantiated words and/or false stories from a source who has demonstrated that he lacks credibility." There is currently a lawsuit against Serber for theft of company property, fraud, and Stolen Valor.  See full article here.

On Oct. 10, 2019, a spokesperson for Lindberg said that contrary to media reports, the bankruptcy filing of Agera Energy, LLC is not a sign of nor will it cause financial stress at companies owned by Greg Lindberg's main holding company Academy Association, Inc. Agera was not an acquisition that Mr. Lindberg's investment team sought out. The investment stake in Agera was inherited as part of an acquisition of a Bermuda insurance company. Mr. Lindberg and his affiliates invested over $100 million in Agera and the decision to no longer support the investment was made with full approval of insurance regulators. See full article here:

On, Oct. 23, 2019 Greg E. Lindberg announced that he retained Louis Freeh, former Federal Judge and FBI Director, and his firm Freeh, Sporkin & Sullivan to examine and render advice regarding financial aspects of Mr. Lindberg’s business entities, with respect to, among other things, assertions made by the North Carolina Insurance Department, as well as those made in recent press accounts, pending litigation, and regulatory matters relating to his insurance companies that are currently in rehabilitation. “Mr. Lindberg has asserted from the outset that the allegations about his insurance companies and him are false and is pleased that Mr. Freeh and his team to have agreed to take on this assignment,” a spokesperson for Mr. Lindberg stated. Full article here.