Robin Campaniano, president and chief executive officer of AIG Hawai'i Insurance Co., didn't want to believe his doctor's diagnosis of type 2 diabetes two years ago.

"I wasn't exactly a model patient," Campaniano said. "Like other diabetics, I resisted. 'I'm not diabetic.' But he showed me the numbers and said, 'I'm tired of talking to you. I'm putting you on medication.' "

As Campaniano learned to manage his disease, he began to understand the scope of the problem in Hawai'i.

"It really shocked me how prevalent diabetes is in our community," he said. "Eventually, a huge percentage of people will have it. That was something that made me think, 'It's too big a number to avoid.' "

Coincidentally, Campaniano said, AIG began participating in several workplace wellness programs, including Diabetes Life Coaching.

Employee participation is confidential. But several AIG employees nonetheless told Campaniano that they appreciated the effort because they, too, have diabetes.

"That's when a lot of guys came up to me and said, 'Guess what?' " Campaniano said. "It opened the door to me having some pretty good chats with some of my employees."