Citi may elevate i-bank chief to president’s post

NEW YORK: Citigroup is considering executive changes that would move Robert Druskin, head of the company’s corporate and investment bank, into a more senior role, said two people with knowledge of the deliberations.

CEO Charles Prince may elevate Mr Druskin, 59, to a position with broader responsibilities at the New York-based company, such as president, said the people, who declined to be identified because a decision hasn’t been announced. A new job for Mr Druskin may lead to a shakeup for Michael Klein and Thomas Maheras, his deputies.

Citigroup, the world’s biggest financial-services company by market value, is under pressure because its stock price isn’t keeping pace with Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The shares rose 2.3% on December 8, the most in eight months, on speculation that Mr Prince would sell some of the company’s units or shuffle his management team. “What the stock price told you on Friday was that investors want change,” said Richard Bove, an analyst at Punk Ziegel & Co in Pinellas Park, Florida, who has a ‘buy’ rating on Citigroup.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the company’s second-biggest shareholder, is among those who have pressed Citigroup to slash expenses to boost profit. Citigroup spokeswoman Leah Johnson declined to comment. Mr Druskin, Mr Klein and Mr Maheras didn’t return calls seeking comment. Mr Druskin has spent most of his 15 years at Citigroup and its predecessor companies as an administrator with responsibilities ranging from operations and technology to purchasing and business planning.

While former CEO Sanford Weill was making the more than 100 acquisitions that built Citigroup, he often turned to Druskin to cut costs and streamline computer and back-office systems. When Mr Prince ran Citigroup’s investment bank for a year before becoming CEO in October 2003, Mr Druskin was his top deputy. Last year, while speaking at an investor conference, Mr Prince, 56, referred to Mr Druskin as “my old partner”.

Mr Druskin earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1969. That year, he joined Shearson Hammill & Co, the brokerage that Weill bought in the 1970s, sold to American Express in 1981 and reacquired in 1993. In 1991, Mr Weill appointed Mr Druskin chief administrative officer of his securities unit, then known as Smith Barney. When Mr Weill reassigned Mr Prince, a lawyer, to overhaul the investment bank’s internal controls in 2002, Mr Druskin became the unit’s president and COO. Citigroup’s last president, Robert Willumstad, resigned in July 2005.

Both Mr Klein and Mr Maheras came to Citigroup through the company’s 1997 acquisition of Salomon Brothers. Mr Klein, 43, oversees its investment and corporate bankers and has responsibility for businesses such as loans and mergers and acquisitions. Mr Maheras, 44, runs capital markets and trading. The executives started at Salomon during its heyday in the 1980s and ascended to senior roles before turning 40. Citigroup previously has had co-heads of investment banking. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts executive Deryck Maughan shared the role in the late 1990s, a volatile combination that derailed both careers at the company.

Mr Klein, who joined Salomon in the M&A department, was named Citigroup’s co-head of investment banking in 2000 under Michael Carpenter. He advanced to his current role in 2004 after Mr Prince became CEO and was succeeded by Mr Druskin as the head of the corporate and investment bank. Mr Carpenter went on to run Citigroup’s alternative-investments unit, which includes hedge funds, private equity and real estate. He left in March and Citigroup is still looking for a replacement.

Mr Maheras, a former bond trader, rose to head of fixed income in 1996. The bank promoted him again in 2004 to head of capital markets, which includes both the fixed-income and equities divisions. Maheras is also chairman of the US Treasury’s Borrowing Advisory Committee. Mr Although Maheras is in charge of just 8,500 of the company’s 307,000 employees, his division produced almost a quarter of the bank’s $44.4 billion in revenue and $10.9 billion in net income for the first half of 2006.

Mr Druskin would become the first addition to Mr Prince’s inner circle since June 2005, when the bank hired longtime corporate lawyer Lewis Kaden as chief administrative officer. — Bloomberg