“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen! And welcome to a special performance of the Sandy and Jonny show. And joining us as our special guest star today, heeeerrrrrrre’s Bobby!” Yes, Citigroup’s CEO show is back on the air, broadcast live from the 12th floor auditorium of Citibank’s midtown Park Avenue building. But this was not the stunning programme initially expected when Citigroup announced the show. Speculation had been rife that another merger or acquisition was on the way: chairmen and co-CEOs Sandy Weill and John Reed were, after all, presenting the show themselves, and the promoters were PR company Kekst and Co, which had made a name for itself compering at various M&A shows over the years.
But no, not this time. Instead our hosts walked in with the new employee of the week, Mr Robert Rubin, 61, co-CEO of Goldman Sachs until 1993, when he left to join the White House staff in Bill Clinton’s administration, before becoming US treasury secretary in 1995.
When they announced that Rubin was to join the firm, there was cheering and rapturous applause from the audience; Sandy and Jonny were speaking mainly to their own people, and the people approved. The press corp sat there stunned at this gratuitous display of support.
But the wider audience loved it as well. “Wow! What a coup!”screamed one adoring bank analyst. “Smart man, high integrity, excellent diplomatic skills, brilliant, thoughtful, rational, logical, gets along with everyone, wonderful contacts, emerged from Washington unscathed, if not canonized.”
Rubin entertained several opportunities to return to finance before plumping for the behemoth which is Citigroup. “I wanted to be part of an institution that I could be proud of and happy investing many years of my time in,” he said to the gathering of the faithful. “And I was very attracted by Sandy and John’s vision of the future.” And one more thing: “I didn’t want to be a CEO.”
Which is good really, because Citigroup already has two of them. Instead, Bobby will have what his new colleague Sandy describes as “the best job in the company. He has no line responsibilities, yet has full participation…he will be in the loop on just about everything that happens with John and I.” After a few months of “walking around the company with a yellow notepad,” as he puts it, Bobby will set to work as an adviser and facilitator. They have appointed Bobby as a member of the board, chairman of the executive committee and one of three men in the new office of the chairmen. Clear? Well, Sandy and Jonny want to quash any notion that Bobby will take over running the show any time soon. Antony Currie
