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A Knack for Numbers

Paul J. Battaglia's mother, Elaine Leinung, likes to say that her son was "born at age 40."

Even as a preschooler, Mr. Battaglia, who was actually 22, had a knack for numbers. How else to explain a 4-year-old tallying the correct amount of change due even before the cashier at the grocery could? It happened a lot, Ms. Leinung said, and by age 10, he was balancing checkbooks.

"I would have such difficulty with it and complain," Ms. Leinung said. "It all started with his Commodore 64 computer when he was 9. He found his niche: numbers."

By his senior year at Regis High School in Manhattan, Mr. Battaglia had earned an internship with Marsh & McLennan. After he graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton, his internship turned into a position as a risk consultant. He was so proud of his job on the 100th floor of Tower 1 that he posted pictures of his office and his view of the Brooklyn Bridge (his home borough) on his Web site, Battaglia.org. One snapshot was mostly gray. "Cloudy day!" he wrote underneath.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 21, 2001.