At the age of 55, Richard Handley, former Latin American head of Citibank and architect of Argentina's foremost communications and media empire, has decided to get out while he is ahead. Although he continues as a director of CEI Citicorp Holdings, the company he created, he stepped down as CEO in September "to spend more time with my wife and on the farm. I'm playing a bit more golf too".
He has probably earned his rest, having packed more incident and controversy into his career than most bankers could dream of. Born in Buenos Aires in 1943 from Irish and Scottish stock, he is known on official documents as Heriberto Ricardo Handley. But like many Anglo-Argentines, his name has been anglicized to Richard and shortened by many of his colleagues simply to "Dick".
His childhood contained little to suggest that a glittering career lay ahead of him. "I was a bit of a rogue," Handley confesses. "I wasn't a very good student, that's how I ended up at Saint George's I suppose." His time as a boarder at the exclusive Saint George's College made him many of the friends with whom he shared his career.