Investor Relations 101

[Tina]

Issue Date: IR Alert - July 10, 2009,

Mysterious Citi Shakeup Sees Short-Lived CFO Kelly Shifted to VP Role as Head of Strategy: Gerspach Upshifts as Corp’s New CFO
In a surprise reshuffling of top management, Citigroup Inc. lured one of the nation's most respected bankers to run its depository business and moved its chief financial officer into a job heading strategy and Citi's own dealmaking. Eugene McQuade, the new chief executive of Citibank, has a lot of experience in banking — and with managing institutions in financial trouble. He was chief operating officer of Freddie Mac, head of banking at Merrill Lynch and president of Bank of America. He was a highly regarded chief financial officer at FleetBoston Financial, when that bank sold itself to Bank of America in 2004, MarketWatch reports.

Citi also said that Edward "Ned" Kelly, who took over the CFO position from Gary Crittenden in April, will return to his previous position as head of strategy and Citi's advisor on its own mergers, acquisition and divestitures. Kelly will be promoted to Vice Chairman of Citigroup. Citigroup also promoted its comptroller and chief accounting officer, John Gerspach, a Citi veteran of 19 years, to succeed Kelly as CFO.

Kelly joined Citigroup in January 2008, initially as head of the company's alternative-investments business. He was one of CEO Vikram Pandit's first key hires after assuming the top job in late 2007 and Kelly has seen his role expand since then. Kelly is a key ally of Pandit, and Citi's main negotiator with the government over the company's rescue.

McQuade will add weight to Citi's efforts to reinvent itself as a more traditional banking businesses. Citibank, one of the banking industry's most recognized brands, was often an afterthought to Citi's massive investment banking and consumer-finance businesses. But with Citi's restructuring, Citibank has become central to the bank's overall strategy. Executives have made clear that attention will shift to the retail banking strategy, particularly in the U.S.