花旗前掌门潘伟迪的三人帮散伙了
前花旗集团CEO潘伟迪（Former Citi CEO Vikram Pandit）
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花旗集团（Citigroup）周二下午召开的电话会议基本上没什么消息，最大的新闻可能就是董事长迈克•奥尼尔结束简短讲话后，新任CEO迈克尔•考伯特说的一番话。考伯特广而告之：首席风险官布莱恩•里奇“承诺将继续留在花旗”。 这个消息很值得关注，因为里奇是潘伟迪2007年接掌花旗时在关键岗位上安插的三位摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)老同事之一。两人关系密切，但周二，潘伟迪已经下台。《财富》杂志当时称他们为“三人帮。” 三人帮之一的约翰•哈文思是花旗总裁，同时掌管着机构客户业务。周二，哈文思宣布随着潘伟迪离开，他也将从花旗辞职。（哈文思称自己只不过是将辞职时间提前了一点，他早就打算在今年年底前离开）。 第三位是花旗首席行政官卡拉翰，考伯特在讲话中没有提到。但既然考伯特特别提到了里奇和首席财务官约翰•戈斯帕奇(也将留下)，没提卡拉翰就显得特别突兀。我们的猜测是卡拉翰也将追随潘伟迪离开。 像所有大银行一样，花旗面临多方面的风险，而里奇普遍被认为在应对风险方面表现出色。因此他将继续留在花旗的消息对于公司未来非常重要。一位前花旗董事周二表示，利奇“非常能干”。 这位董事过去和潘伟迪也很熟，对他的评价也很高：“一步一步，”这位董事说，“他带领这家银行站稳脚跟，增强实力。” 美国联邦存款保险公司（FDIC）主席希拉•贝尔绝不认同这样积极的评价。他周三表示，与潘伟迪打交道“让人恼火”，他根本“不能胜任工作”。贝尔在最近出版的新书《Bull by the Horns》中也一再抨击潘伟迪的表现。 花旗的电话会议没有透露更多为何潘伟迪突然离职的信息。但鉴于这家公司在市场中的重要地位，真相肯定会传出来。另外，这样的人事震荡肯定对哪家公司都不是件好事，更别提这样一家5年来一直在努力走出泥淖的公司了。 |
On Citigroup's generally uninformative conference call on Tuesday afternoon, the biggest news may have come after Chairman Michael O'Neill finished his brief remarks and new CEO Michael Corbat launched his. Corbat's bulletin: Chief risk officer Brian Leach "has committed to stay." That bears big notice because Leach was one of three Morgan Stanley (MS) veterans whom Vikram Pandit —out as CEO as of Tuesday — installed in important Citi jobs when he took over in 2007 and who were very close to him. Fortune described them soon after as "the three amigos." One of the amigos, John Havens, president of Citi (C) and also head of the Institutional Clients Group, announced Tuesday that, with Pandit's departure, he would be resigning from Citi also. (Havens positioned his exit as an acceleration of plans he already had to leave at the end of this year). The third amigo was Don Callahan, Citi's chief administrative officer, whom Corbat, in his remarks, did not mention. But since Corbat did put the spotlight on both Leach and chief financial officer John Gerspach (also staying), the omission of Callahan's name stood out. The bet here is that Callahan will be following Pandit out the door. Citi's risks, like those of all major banks, are manifold and Leach is widely regarded as having done an excellent job in handling them. So the news that he's sticking around is important for the health of the company. One former Citi director said yesterday that Leach was "fabulous." That same one-time director, it should be said, got to know Pandit well and thinks very highly of him: "Step by step," the director says, "he stabilized and strengthened the bank." That favorable opinion is not shared by former FDIC chairman Sheila Bair, who said today she had found Pandit "maddening" to deal with and just "not up to the job." Bair's recently released book, Bull by the Horns, repeatedly knocks Pandit's performance. Citi's conference call added very little to what is known about Pandit's abrupt departure from his job. But the story—given the importance of the company—is almost certain to come out. In the meantime, disruption of this kind cannot be good for any company, much less one that has been digging itself out of a deep hole for five years. |
