Sign In
SHARE
Vikram Pandit Ousts Investment Banking Chief
Today is a great day to bury news if you're an investment bank which isn't directly caught up in the Bear Stearns collapse. After being forced to bail out his own alternative-investments unit, Vikram has now promoted the head of that unit, his BFF John Havens, to run the entire Citigroup investment bank. Michael Klein, who was co-CEO of the investment bank and recently received a $13.8 million "retention" award, is now a non-executive chairman of the bank's Institutional Clients Group, whatever that means. (I think it means spending a lot of time on airplanes, while not worrying about the nuts and bolts of how things get done.)
It's worth recalling Dear John Thain's advice to Pandit:
End the war on morale. Really. Do I really have to point to examples? Naming old co-workers to key roles? Acquiring hedge funds that haven't even raised money (well, $150MM)? Buying an odd-fitting shop comprised of former colleagues and giving them the same seat at the table as a large, much more established, group already operating within the firm? Siding with your old shop in a dispute, and agreeing to a worse deal (paying the other shop's expenses!) than if the original trade has just been pushed through (and destroying value for third parties whose money you are supposed to be managing)? Seriously?
Pandit seems to have no respect for any of the Citi employees he became the boss of when he took over as CEO. Which bodes ill for his ability to lead from the front in his attempts to regain Citi's former stature.
Update: Eric Dash is more sympathetic to Pandit, and has less sympathy for Klein.
Loading...
Thank you for registering as a Portfolio.com Insider. Your comment has been added.
Create Your Public Profile
- The Times' Rorshach Geithner Story
- Apr 27 2009 9:26AM EDT
- Sinking Animal Spirits
- Apr 27 2009 8:45AM EDT
- Counter-cyclical Urban Policy
- Apr 26 2009 10:00AM EDT
- Be Your Own Counterfeiter
- Apr 26 2009 9:36AM EDT
- Being Tim Geithner
- Apr 25 2009 12:37PM EDT
- Notes From a Press Conference Naif
- Apr 25 2009 9:41AM EDT
- What Good is the News?
- Apr 25 2009 8:32AM EDT
- Stressful Enough
- Apr 24 2009 2:29PM EDT
- Not Regretting the Pound
- Apr 24 2009 1:09PM EDT
- Introducing the New Ford Squeeze
- Apr 24 2009 9:47AM EDT
- Non-Economic Questions of the Day
- Apr 24 2009 9:12AM EDT
- The Stress Test Blind Alley
- Apr 24 2009 8:36AM EDT
- Happy Hour
- Apr 23 2009 9:40PM EDT
- Recovery Without Rebalancing
- Apr 23 2009 6:13PM EDT
- The Shape of Your Recession
- Apr 23 2009 5:11PM EDT
Archive
Categories
Links
- Email Ryan Avent
- Econospeak
- Financial Crookery
- The Epicurean Dealmaker
- Naked Capitalism
- Alphaville
- Marginal Revolution
- The Panelist
- FP Passport
- Overcoming Bias
- Andrew Leonard
- Barry Ritholtz
- Brad Setser
- Carbon Tax Center
- Calculated Risk
- Greg Mankiw
- Free Exchange
- Dean Baker
- Alexander Campbell
- Kash Mansori
- The Bayesian Heresy
- A Fistful of Euros
- John Quiggin
- Michael Mandel
- Lance Knobel
- Mark Thoma
- Dan Gross
- Curbed
- Streetsblog
- Chris Anderson
- Deal Journal
- MarketBeat
- DealBook
- DealBreaker
- Carl Bialik
- Michelle Leder
- Brad DeLong
- Ultimi Barbarorum
