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New job Pandit's toughest, says Citi CEO's friend
Published on Mon, Dec 17, 2007 at 21:31, Updated at Mon, Dec 17, 2007 in Business section
Tags: Vikram Pandit, Guru Ramakrishnan , New York
LINKED IN: Guru Ramakrishnan, who has known Pandit for 20 years, says Pandit is the right guy for Citi's tough task ahead.
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New York: Given the extent of Citigroup's troubles related to the ongoing credit crisis and subprime mortgage exposure, some analysts have questioned whether the new CEO Vikram Pandit has the experience and aggression required to pull the global financial giant out of the mess.
But a close associate, who has known and worked with Pandit for over 20 years, says he's just the right guy for the tough task ahead.
Guru Ramakrishnan quit Morgan Stanley along with Vikram Pandit in 2005, and soon they co-founded Old Lane, a global hedge fund acquired by Citi in April this year.
Now as President and CEO of Old Lane, and part of Citi's management committee, Ramakrishnan has an inside view of Pandit's task ahead.
“The challenge is three-fold. Firstly, you've got to get earnings back on track. Next, you've got to get risk management culture which does not have another chance of sitting down and dropping money the way Citi has over the last three to six months and three, you've got to do it in a way where you bring a talented group of people together and commit them to particular goals and objectives,” says Ramakrishnan.
“All of these are fairly daunting tasks but all three are buckets which Vikram can deal with and do extremely well,” he adds.
The top job at Citi was reportedly turned down by several industry heavyweights before the board decided on Pandit. Ramakrishnan is not surprised his friend accepted the job. He says Pandit's response to a complex challenge is usually: Bring it on.
“Knowing him as well as I do—and I've known him for over 20 years now—he's a very competitive person. He loves challenges and complexity,” shares Ramakrishnan.
He says, “With what happened from the previous exercise at Morgan Stanley, where he was in line to do that, he's even more committed to sit down and show the world that he's capable of doing this and dealing with all the complexity that comes with it.”
Pandit made his first big move when Citigroup decided to shift 49 billion dollars in troubled subprime related investments to its own balance sheet, a decision described variously as radical and risky.
But given the cards he's holding, Pandit may have to take a few calculated risks to turn the financial giant around.
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