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Finally, after ending days of speculation, Citigroup Inc. has named former Morgan Stanley President Vikram Pandit as its new CEO. The Indian born Pandit succeeds Charles O. Prince, who stepped down last month after the banking giant wrote off at least $9 billion of mortgage losses following the sub-prime crisis. He takes over immediately.
Win Bischoff, the acting CEO, will be the new chairman, replacing Robert Rubin, the board member and the former U.S. Treasury secretary who became chairman temporarily. Earlier this year, Citi bought out Pandit's Old Lane Fund (set up in 2006) for about $800 million, and hired Pandit, 50, (as well as his top team) as its head of private-equity and hedge-fund investments.
What is interesting is Citi has chosen financial expert Pandit (he is considered very good at quant) to get itself out of the mess. Pandit is essentially an institutional trader and does not have experience in running a consumer facing finance business, which Citi really is. It remains to be seen how Pandit can run a large banking conglomerate like Citigroup as opposed to his hedge fund trading experience.
Bloomberg has short bio of the man. Pandit, the son of an Indian businessman, went to the US at age of 16 in 1973. He received bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at Columbia University, where he also got a Ph.D. in finance. He worked as an investment banker and trading manager at Morgan Stanley for 22 years before quitting in 2005 following a power struggle with then-CEO Philip Purcell.