花旗新掌門任重而道遠

????花旗集團（Citigroup）新任CEO邁克爾?考伯特曾是常青藤盟校的橄欖球明星，在哈佛大學（Harvard）自助餐廳中的回頭率頗高。

????哈佛校友安德魯?道克托羅夫1982年時曾在校報The Harvard Crimson上為這位當時的常青藤聯盟進攻鋒線隊員撰文，如今回憶起來仍稱贊道“他是一個發展極其全面的人。他很好地保留了自己杰出的運動天賦。”

????即使是在那個時候，身高6.3英尺(約1.92米)、體重230磅(約104公斤)的考伯特就已將目光投向了投資銀行業。時至今日，他已經獲得華爾街最頂級、但可能也最具挑戰的職位之一。

????花旗集團周二宣布，現年52歲的考伯特將接替潘偉迪擔任集團新一任CEO。潘偉迪曾將花旗從破產的邊緣拉了回來。最困難的時后，花旗曾經不得不兩次接受美國政府的救助。此后，花旗已經向美國政府償還了這些救助資金，但在實現增長方面仍困難重重。近來，花旗錯過了抵押貸款市場的一波繁榮。而且，花旗手頭還有幾十億美元的不良資產希望出手，但似乎還沒有想清如何剝離。這些不良資產還在繼續拖累花旗的業績。

????考伯特在周二下午召開的分析師電話會議上表示：“我們擁有適當的業務覆蓋和資源，我們要確保恰當利用這些資源。”

????不同于潘偉迪，考伯特在花旗已經干了大半輩子，而潘偉迪是通過一項有爭議的并購交易進入花旗，隨后不久被選為CEO。一名曾與考伯特共事的前花旗高管說：“與潘偉迪相比，考伯特在擔任CEO前涉及的職責更為廣泛。他很有能力，是名出色的銷售。”

????考伯特的第一份工作是在亞特蘭大的所羅門兄弟公司(Salomon Brothers)。1987年，他被調到所羅門兄弟具有傳奇色彩的紐約辦公室，邁克爾?劉易斯著名的華爾街小說《說謊者的撲克牌》(Liar's Poker)就是以所羅門兄弟紐約辦公室為背景。在所羅門兄弟，考伯特從債券交易員做到了高收益債券和新興市場主管。后來，所羅門兄弟通過一系列并購交易，與花旗銀行(Citibank)合并，組建了花旗集團。

????前花旗集團CEO桑迪?威爾表示，他十分了解考伯特，花旗集團董事會做出了很好的選擇。“他在花旗擔任過很多重要職務，一直都是一名優秀的管理者，”威爾說。“他在公司內部備受尊敬，未來將成為花旗團隊一名出色的領導者。”

????所羅門兄弟與花旗銀行合并以來，考伯特在花旗集團擔任過很多業務部門的主管，包括企業銀行和財富管理部門等，也曾派駐倫敦和香港。本輪金融危機后不久，潘偉迪就任命考伯特主管Citi Holdings，即包括次貸和所羅門美邦（Salomon Smith Barney）經紀業務等在內的大量花旗希望剝離的業務組合。考伯特在擔任該項職務期間僅用了3年多一點的時間就幫助花旗剝離了5,000億美元不想再持有的資產。今年年初，他接管了花旗集團的歐洲、中東和非洲業務。

????與花旗集團合作過的一位獵頭說：“潘偉迪讓考伯特負責狀況欠佳的銀行業務，感覺他干得不錯。“

????Citigroup's new CEO Michael Corbat was an ivy league football star, who turned heads in the Harvard cafeteria.

????"He was extremely well rounded," says Andrew Doctoroff, a fellow Harvard student, who wrote about the then All-Ivy offensive lineman in The Harvard Crimson in 1982. "He kept his athletic prowess in perspective."

????Even back then, the 6'3'', 230-pound Corbat had his sights on tackling investment banking. He's now landed in one of the biggest jobs on Wall Street, and perhaps the toughest.

????On Tuesday, Citigroup (C) said Corbat, 52, would take over from Vikram Pandit as the firm's new CEO. Pandit brought Citi back from its near death experience, when it had to be bailed out twice by the government. It has since paid Uncle Sam back. But the bank has struggled to grow. Recently, Citi missed out on a boom in the mortgage market. What's more, Citi is still stuck with billions of dollars of assets that the bank says it no longer wants to own, but can't seem to figure out how to get rid off. The troubled assets have continued to drag down Citi's earnings.

????"We have the right footprint and the right resources," Corbat told analysts on conference call on Tuesday afternoon. "It's up to us to make sure we use these properly."

????Unlike Pandit, who was brought into the bank in a controversial acquisition shortly before being picked as CEO, Corbat is a lifer of the Citi organization. "He's had a broader range of roles leading up to the job than Pandit," says a former Citi executive who worked with Corbat. "He's a capable guy and a good salesman."

????Corbat's first job was working for Salomon Brothers in Atlanta. But by 1987, he had been transferred to Solly's legendary New York office, which later became the subject of Michael Lewis' famous Wall Street book Liar's Poker. A debt specialist, Corbat rose to be the head of high-yield bonds and emerging markets at Solly, before the firm was merged in a series of acquisitions with Citibank to form Citigroup.

????Sandy Weill, the former CEO of Citigroup, said that he knows Corbat well and thought Citi's board had made a good choice. "He has been a great manager for Citi in all of the important positions he has held," said Weill. "He is respected by the people within the company and he will be a good leader for the team in the future."

????Since the Citigroup merger, Corbat has headed up a number of businesses at the firm, including corporate bank and its wealth management division, and has spent time in London and Hong Kong. Shortly after the financial crisis, Pandit named Corbat the head of Citi Holdings, the group of businesses, including subprime lending and the Salomon Smith Barney brokerage division, that bank was looking to get rid of. As head of that division, Corbat helped the firm dispose of $500 billion of unwanted assets in a little over three years. At the beginning of this year, he took over the firm's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

????"Pandit put Corbat in charge of the bad bank and the sense is that he did a good job with it," says an executive recruiter who has worked with Citi.