Euromoneys awards for excellence recognize the banks that have best performed under difficult conditions over the past year. But what of the CEOs? Profile is everything but how can one really judge the most influential chiefs of the worlds biggest banks?
Maybe Wikipedia has the answer. What better sign that youve truly arrived than your own page on the free encyclopedia thats written by members of the general public?
But mere presence is not enough. One must have more words than the next man to claim bragging rights. And RBSs Fred Goodwin is the Wiki king of the bank chiefs, with a storming 1,363 words on his Wiki page. None other breaks the 1,000 mark, and even John Macks 865 in second place includes 416 words on insider trading allegations, which takes the sheen off somewhat.
But despite the CEOs of UBS and Credit Suisse having no page at all (Swiss secrecy, anyone?), the men who should be most worried are Deutsche Banks Josef Ackermann and Barclays John Varley. The two have the unfortunate distinction of being the only CEOs that have employees with a bigger Wiki page. Bob Diamonds 292 words comfortably beats his bosss 185, while Ackermanns 102 is dwarfed by Anshu Jains 206. A couple of secretaries might have busy evenings ahead...
| Bankopedia |
| Wikipedia exposure of Bank CEOs |
| Bank |
CEO |
Wiki word count |
| RBS |
Fred Goodwin |
1363 |
| Morgan Stanley |
John Mack |
865 |
| Société Générale |
Daniel Bouton |
808 |
| JPMorgan |
Jamie Dimon |
498 |
| Lehman Brothers |
Dick Fuld |
404 |
| Citigroup |
Vikram Pandit |
391 |
| HSBC |
Michael Geoghegan |
386 |
| Merrill Lynch |
John Thain |
339 |
| Goldman Sachs |
Lloyd Blankfein |
329 |
| Barclays |
John Varley |
185 |
| Bank of America |
Ken Lewis |
172 |
| Deutsche Bank |
Josef Ackermann |
102 |
| BNP Paribas |
Baudouin Prot |
92 |
| UBS |
Marcel Rohner |
0 |
| Credit Suisse |
Brady Dougan |
0 |