Citigroup Inc chief executive officer Charles Prince, whom Sanford Weill picked over other top lieutenants to succeed him in running the world's biggest financial services company, is assembling an inner circle of his own.
Prince, 55, yesterday promoted Steve Freiberg and Ajay Banga as co-heads of Citigroup's global consumer unit, replacing Marjorie Magner, who resigned. The promotions, which follow Prince's decision a year ago to swap the duties of retail brokerage head Sallie Krawcheck and chief financial officer Todd Thomson, give Prince at least four 40-something executives who report directly to him.
"There are a large number of people here who have the potential to be CEO someday," Prince said in an interview. "We can continue to move the next generation into positions of leadership where they can be tested in ways that can extend their careers even further." Magner, 56, like Prince and chief operating officer Robert Willumstad, worked alongside Weill for almost 20 years. When Willumstad, 60, announced last month that he would leave New York-based Citigroup to pursue a CEO job elsewhere, Prince said he wouldn't be replaced.
With the departures of Willumstad and now Magner, Prince loses more than 60 years of combined experience in consumer banking, Citigroup's most profitable business.
"There's a concern that there aren't enough people at the top to fill in for people leaving," said Thane Bublitz, who helps manage US$66 billion at Minneapolis-based Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, which owns 4.2 million Citigroup shares.
"They're not one of the ones that would come to mind initially when thinking of companies with a deep bench," he said.
Weill, 72, ceded the CEO post in October 2003 to Prince, who had spent most of his career as the company's general counsel.
Weill, who remains chairman of Citigroup, considered leaving this year before pledging last month to remain until his contract expires next year.
Prince ousted vice chairman Deryck Maughan, asset-management head Thomas Jones and Peter Scaturro, who ran the private bank, last year after regulators shut down the company's private-banking arm in Japan for failing to police money-laundering and fraud.
Willumstad and Magner left jobs at Chemical Bank in New York in 1987 to join Weill at Commercial Credit Co, and remained at his side even as former colleagues such as Jay Fishman, Jamie Dimon and Jeffrey Lane landed CEO jobs outside the company, and Prince was tapped as Citigroup's next CEO.
Magner will depart on Oct. 1 to pursue interests in the music or entertainment industry, academia and philanthropy. She said neither Willumstad's departure nor Prince's decision to keep the COO post vacant played a role in her decision.
A May 31 accident, in which Magner was struck by taxi cab on the corner of 71st Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan, left Magner with a broken leg -- and time to evaluate her life and career.
Magner will be replaced by Banga, 45, and Freiberg, 48. The business, which includes 3,415 retail branches, credit cards and consumer loans, accounted for 58 percent of Citigroup's revenue in the first half of this year. Citigroup's consumer business earned US$11.9 billion last year, more than Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique