Vikram S. Pandit is an Indian-born American business executive. He is the current CEO of
CitigroupCitigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
.
Early life
Vikram Pandit was born in Nagpur, India to an affluent
MarathiThe Marathi people or Maharashtrians are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages...
family . His father, S B Pandit was an executive director at Sarabhai Chemicals in Baroda. He completed his schooling at the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School in Dadar, Mumbai. He moved to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
when he was 16 years old, to study at
Gannon UniversityGannon University is a private, co-educational Catholic university offering associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees, certificates and doctoral degrees and is located in Erie, Pennsylvania. Gannon University has an alumni base numbering around 31,500. Current enrollment is 4,238.Gannon's...
and received a
B.S.A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
and
M.S.A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
in
electrical engineeringElectrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1976 and 1977 respectively and an M.B.A in 1980 followed by a
Ph.D.A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in
Finance"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
from
Columbia Business SchoolColumbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...
in 1986. His Thesis was entitled "
Asset prices in a heterogeneous consumer economy". He is a trustee at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Early career
Vikram Pandit was a professor at Indiana University (Bloomington). He joined
Morgan StanleyMorgan Stanley is a global financial services firm headquartered in New York City serving a diversified group of corporations, governments, financial institutions, and individuals. Morgan Stanley also operates in 36 countries around the world, with over 600 offices and a workforce of over 60,000....
as an associate in 1983, one of the first Indians to join the company. Pandit served as the Head of Alternative Investments, Chief Executive Officer, and Member of Operating and Management Committee at Citigroup Alternative Investments. Pandit served as the Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup. In 2005 Pandit and
John HavensJohn P. Havens is president and chief operating officer of Citigroup.Havens graduated from Harvard University in 1979 and his first job was trader of convertible securities at Kidder Peabody....
started Old Lane LLC, a hedge fund with 2 billion dollars
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aP5.NZJ8oCss&refer=top_world_news. Citi bought the company in 2007 for $800 million bringing both Pandit and Havens into Citi leadership.
He served at
Credit SuisseThe Credit Suisse Group AG is a Swiss multinational financial services company headquartered in Zurich, with more than 250 branches in Switzerland and operations in more than 50 countries.-History:...
Group and Morgan Stanley in the position of President of Institutional Securities, Chief Operating Officer of Institutional Securities, and Member of the Management Committee. He serves as a Member of Board of Trustees of
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He is a Member of Board of Overseers of
Columbia Business SchoolColumbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...
. Pandit also serves as a Member of Governing Board at
Indian School of BusinessThe Indian School of Business is a business school in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. It offers a Post Graduate Programme in Management , a Fellow Program in Management, and a Post Graduate Programme in Management for Senior...
. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of the
Institute of International FinanceThe Institute of International Finance, Inc. is the world's only global association of financial institutions. It was created by 38 banks of leading industrialised countries in 1983 in response to the international debt crisis of the early 1980s...
.
Citigroup
On December 11, 2007, Pandit was named the new CEO of
CitigroupCitigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, replacing interim-CEO
Sir Winfried BischoffSir Winfried Franz Wilhen "Win" Bischoff is an Anglo-German banker, who is currently chairman of Lloyds Banking Group plc. He was formerly chairman of Citigroup and previously served as interim CEO of the same company in 2007. He was succeeded as CEO by Vikram Pandit on 11 December 2007. Bischoff...
, who became chairman of the board as well as remaining CEO of Citigroup Europe. Interim chairman
Robert RubinRobert Edward Rubin served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during both the first and second Clinton administrations. Before his government service, he spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs eventually serving as a member of the Board, and Co-Chairman from 1990-1992...
strongly supported Pandit, who is the effective successor to Chuck Prince. Prince resigned in November 2007 due to unexpectedly poor 3rd-quarter performance, mainly due to
CDOCollateralized debt obligations are a type of structured asset-backed security with multiple "tranches" that are issued by special purpose entities and collateralized by debt obligations including bonds and loans. Each tranche offers a varying degree of risk and return so as to meet investor demand...
- and
MBSA mortgage-backed security is an asset-backed security that represents a claim on the cash flows from mortgage loans through a process known as securitization.-Securitization:...
-related losses.
CNBCCNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
ranked Pandit as the 20th worst American CEO of all time.
Compensation
While CEO of Citigroup in 2007, Vikram S. Pandit earned an annualized compensation of $3,164,320, which included a base salary of $250,000, stocks granted of $2,914,320, and options granted of $0. In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $38,237,437, which included a base salary of $958,333, stocks granted of $28,830,000, and options granted of $8,432,911. However, after adjusting for Citigroup’s sunken share price, the package was worth just a few million dollars. Pandit did receive $165 million for his low performing hedge fund which was purchased by Citi in 2007. The fund has since been shuttered.
2009
On February 11, 2009, Pandit testified to Congress that he had declared to his board of directors, "my salary should be $1 per year with no bonus until we return to profitability." He also struck an apologetic tone for letting the bank consider completing the purchase of a private jet plane after receiving some $45 billion in bailout money. His total 2009 compensation was $128,751, with a base salary of $125,001 and other compensation of $3,750.
After working for two years for just $1 a year, he will now receive $1.75 million.
2011
After posting five consecutive quarterly profits Citigroup announced $23.2m retention award to Pandit making him one of the highest paid CEOs.
Personal life
Pandit lives in an apartment on the
Upper West SideThe Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is married and has two children.
External links