Citi's Leadership Hunt
Citigroup Inc. had a Prince, but now it needs a king.
As the bank hunts for a chief executive officer to succeed Charles Prince, it is becoming clear that finding the right candidate to steer Citigroup through financial-market tumult and reinvigorate an institution that has fallen behind its rivals will be difficult -- and that is weighing on the stock price.
Citigroup's shares fell 5.9%, or $2, to $32 yesterday after an influential banking analyst cut his rating on the stock to 'sell' from 'hold,' based on the bank's exposure to areas of the credit markets that have come under enormous pressure.
'The lack of leadership at this point in Citi's storied history could not have come at a worse time,' the analyst, William Tanona of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., wrote in a report yesterday.
Mr. Prince stepped down this month as the bank announced it was facing as much as $11 billion in new losses from the credit crunch -- adding to a litany of recent problems at the bank.
The committee conducting the search includes directors Richard Parsons, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc.; Franklin Thomas, a former CEO of the Ford Foundation; Alain Belda, CEO of Alcoa Inc.; and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who was named chairman after Mr. Prince stepped down. The committee met on a telephone conference yesterday, a person familiar with the matter said.
Also, the bank has hired Prince Goldsmith LLC, a boutique executive-search firm that this year helped to lure American Express Co. Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden to take the same role at Citigroup.
The field of potential candidates thinned last week when Merrill Lynch & Co. snatched John Thain from NYSE Euronext and named him CEO. He succeeded Stan O'Neal, whom Merrill's board ousted last month.
But even Mr. Thain wasn't considered an ideal candidate to lead the largest U.S. bank by assets. Although his pedigree from Goldman Sachs provided him with wide knowledge of Citigroup's Wall Street operations, he lacked a background in consumer banking or commercial banking, two businesses central to Citigroup's vast global presence.
People familiar with the search say there is a dearth of high-profile American financial-industry executives who can take on such a job, and a number of executive recruiters and investors are now speculating that the bank's next CEO may come from overseas or even from outside the financial-services industry.
Indeed, other large companies sometimes have gone outside their industries for a strong CEO. In 2005, Hewlett-Packard Co. named relative unknown Mark Hurd, head of NCR Corp., to succeed Carly Fiorina. And this month, Estee Lauder named a Procter & Gamble Co. snacks executive to run the cosmetics company.
In discussing the qualifications for a Citigroup CEO this month, Mr. Rubin shied away from saying the candidate needed to have a banking background. Instead, he stressed the need for someone with a 'strong international focus' that 'can be related to the globalization of this institution.'
The new CEO 'doesn't need to be everything, but the critical things are oversight, cost containment, team building and understanding risk,' says David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors Inc., a New York money-management firm that owns 1.2 million Citigroup shares.
In the banking industry, most speculation now centers on a short list that includes:
Robert Willumstad: The former Citigroup chief operating officer was passed over for the top job in favor of Mr. Prince. Mr. Willumstad has started a private-equity firm, Brysam Global Partners, and has bolstered his financial-industry credentials by serving as nonexecutive chairman of insurance giant American International Group Inc. He formerly ran Citigroup's consumer businesses and is highly regarded among the bank's employees today. But he has less experience in Citigroup's Wall Street operations. Furthermore, naming a former Citigroup executive might be viewed as a step backward for a company that could use some fresh blood. Mr. Willumstad declined to comment.
Robert Diamond Jr.: The Barclays PLC president turned the bank's capital-markets unit into a leader in the trading and sales of credit, foreign exchange, commodities and interest-rate products. Asked about the Citigroup post last week, he replied, 'We're working through difficult markets right now, so I am very happy where I am.'
Josef Ackermann: The Deutsche Bank CEO has experience running a global bank, having spent 18 years at Credit Suisse and 11 years at Deutsche, where he has been CEO since 2002. He has overhauled the firm to focus on global corporate and investment banking, global asset management, and European retail and private banking. Through a spokesman, he declined to comment.
James Dimon: The J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. chairman and CEO would seem like a natural fit for the job, having once been considered heir apparent to former Chairman and CEO Sanford Weill. A person familiar with the situation said Mr. Dimon isn't interested in the Citi job.
Vikram Pandit: Hired by Citigroup this year when the bank bought his Old Lane hedge fund, Mr. Pandit now oversees the bank's core investment bank and alternative-investments businesses.
Fred Goodwin: The CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, the United Kingdom's second-largest bank by market value, has consumer-banking experience but little hands-on knowledge of running an investment bank. An RBS spokesman declined to comment.
送走了“亲王”查尔斯•普林斯(Charles Prince)的花旗集团(Citigroup)现在急需一位新君主。
然而，在花旗物色普林斯接班人的过程中，有一点正变得越来越清晰，那就是：要找到一位能带领花旗经受金融市场各种动荡的考验、让落后于竞争对手的花旗重新焕发活力的适当人选并不是一件容易的事。而这种局面对花旗的股价已产生了负面影响。
周一，在高盛(Goldman Sachs)一位重量级银行业分析师将花旗评级从持有下调至卖出后，花旗股价应声下跌5.9%，收于32美元。这位分析师作出此举的理由是，花旗在信贷市场有大量受次级债风波影响的业务。
高盛这位名叫威廉•塔诺那(William Tanona)的分析师在报告中指出，在花旗充满传奇的历史上，领导人缺位的事发生在眼下这样一个多事之秋真是糟得不能再糟了。
“亲王”普林斯本月黯然离职，在这之前，花旗宣布它要面对因信贷危机而发生的高达110亿美元的新损失，这让近来问题频发的花旗雪上加霜。
花旗专为物色新掌门成立了一个委员会，其中成员包括：时代华纳(Time Warner)董事长兼首席执行长理查德•帕森斯(Richard Parsons)、福特基金会(Ford Foundation)原首席执行长富兰克林•托马斯(Franklin Thomas)、 美国铝业(Alcoa)首席执行长埃林•贝尔达(Alain Belda)以及普林斯下台后刚被任命为花旗新任董事长的前美国财长罗伯特•鲁宾(Robert Rubin)。
此外，花旗还聘请了高级猎头公司Prince Goldsmith LLC为其寻找人选，Prince Goldsmith今年曾从美国运通(American Express)为花旗挖来首席财务长加里•克里藤登(Gary Crittenden)担任同一职务。
不过，上周美林(Merrill Lynch & Co.)将NYSE Euronext首席执行长约翰•塞恩(John Thain)招至门下，接替上个月被董事会赶走的斯坦•奥尼尔(Stan O'Neal)，这样一来，花旗的备选人名单上又少了一位。
还好，就算认真考虑起来，塞恩也不是领导花旗这家美国最大规模综合性银行的理想人选。虽然塞恩出身高盛，其专业背景足以管理花旗的投行业务，但他在零售银行和商业银行方面毕竟资历不足，而这两块是花旗称雄全球的核心所在。
据了解花旗新掌门遴选情况的人士表示，能担此重任的美国金融界重量级人物并不多，现在，有多家猎头公司及花旗的投资人猜测，花旗下一任首席执行长或许是位海外人士，甚至可能是金融圈之外的什么人。
实际上，其他大公司的确曾有在圈外求贤的例子。比如惠普(Hewlett-Packard) 2005年就曾挖来原NCR Corp.首席执行长马克•赫德(Mark Hurd)接替卡丽•费奥瑞娜(Carly Fiorina)，虽然赫德似乎名不见经传。就在本月，雅诗兰黛(Estee Lauder)任命了宝洁(Procter & Gamble Co.)食品部门一位管理人士执掌这家化妆品公司。
本月，在讨论花旗首席执行长任职资格的时候，鲁宾没有正面提到候选人需要具备银行业背景。他只是强调，这个人需要有很强的国际视野，以便适应花旗的全球化布局。
纽约投资管理公司Matrix Asset Advisors Inc.投资总监戴维•凯兹(David Katz)则认为，新人选不需要面面俱到，关键是要有洞察力、有成本意识和风险意识，重视团队建设。Matrix持有花旗120万股股票。
对来自银行界的可能人选，人们的猜测大多集中在以下人士身上：
罗伯特•维伦斯坦德(Robert Willumstad):
花旗前首席营运长
维伦斯坦德曾与这一角色擦肩而过，最后接棒的正是普林斯。维伦斯坦德已成立了一家私人资本运营公司Brysam Global Partners，同时，作为美国国际集团(AIG)非执行董事长的身份使他在金融界具有相当的威望。他在花旗期间曾执掌个人银行业务，在花旗在职雇员中间人气极高。不过，他在花旗的投行业务方面没有什么资历。此外，让曾在公司任职的人担纲而不是引入新鲜血液或许会被视为一种倒退的做法。维伦斯坦德本人拒绝就相关问题接受采访。
罗伯特•戴蒙(Robert Diamond Jr.):
巴克莱(Barclays PLC)总裁
戴蒙将巴克莱的资本市场子公司发展成为信贷、外汇、大宗商品和利率产品交易和销售领域的领头羊。当上周被问及花旗首席执行长职位的话题时，他的回答是：眼下我们正在走出市场困难期，我对我现在的位置很满意。
尤瑟福•阿克曼(Josef Ackermann):
德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)首席执行长
阿克曼在管理全球性银行方面经验颇丰，他曾在瑞士信贷和德意志银行分别任职18年和11年，2002年成为德意志银行掌门人。他在德意志银行进行了改革，将该行重点业务转向全球性的企业银行和投资银行业务、资产管理业务，在欧洲他们还开展了零售和私人银行业务。阿克曼通过其发言人表示不愿接受相关采访。
詹姆斯•迪蒙(James Dimon):
摩根大通(J.P. Morgan Chase)董事长兼首席执行长
迪蒙似乎是位合适人选，几年前他曾被视为接替花旗前董事长兼首席执行长桑福德•威尔(Sanford Weill)的当然人选。不过，据一位知情人士透露，迪蒙本人对花旗的职位没有兴趣。
威克曼•潘迪特(Vikram Pandit):
花旗核心的投资银行及另类投资业务负责人
花旗今年收购Old Lane对冲基金时，该基金联合发起人之一潘迪特也随之进入花旗管理层。
弗里德•古德温(Fred Goodwin):
英国市值第二大银行苏格兰皇家银行(Royal Bank of Scotland)首席执行长
古德温在消费者银行领域资历很深，但在管理投资银行业务上实践经验甚少。苏格兰皇家银行发言人拒绝置评。