Vikram Shankar Pandit (born 14 January 1957) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

banker and investor who was the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Citigroup from December 2007 to 16 October 2012 and is the current chairman and

of The Orogen Group. Pandit has been honoured with the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, the third highest Indian civilian award, for his contributions to the trade and industry in 2008 by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

Early life and education

Vikram Pandit was born in Dhantoli locality of

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

, Maharashtra, India, to an affluent Marathi family. His father, Shankar B. Pandit, was an executive director at Sarabhai Chemicals in

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

. Pandit studied at Bishop Cotton School in Nagpur, and then completed his schooling at the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School in

Dadar Dadar (Help:IPA/Marathi, ̪aːd̪əɾ is a densely populated residential and shopping neighbourhood in Mumbai. It is also a prominent railway and bus service hub with local and national connectivity. Dadar holds the distinction of being Mum ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. When Pandit was 16 years old, he moved to the United States to attend

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

for his undergraduate program and, in 1976, earned his B.S. degree in electrical engineering in only three years. He then completed his M.S. in electrical engineering in 1977. Pandit subsequently turned to economics and finance and earned an MBA and PhD in finance from Columbia Business School in 1986, after publishing a

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

involving a complex financial puzzle, titled "Asset prices in a heterogeneous consumer economy."

Professional career

Early career and Morgan Stanley (1983–2005)

During his early professional years, he taught economics at Columbia, then had a stint as a professor at

Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bears t ...

in St. Catharines, Canada. He joined

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

as an associate in 1983, one of the first Indians to join the company. In 1990, Vikram Pandit was chosen as the managing director and head of the US Equity

Syndicate A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies, corporations or entities formed to transact some specific business, to pursue or promote a shared interest. Etymology The word ''syndicate'' comes from the French word ''syndicat ...

unit of Morgan Stanley and by 1994, he had risen to become managing director (MD) and head of its worldwide Institutional securities division. He was instrumental in building Morgan Stanley's

electronic trading platform In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products ...

and

prime brokerage Prime brokerage is the generic name for a bundled package of services offered by investment banks, wealth management firms, and securities dealers to hedge funds which need the ability to borrow securities and cash in order to be able to invest ...

division and in 2000, ultimately rose to the post of president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

of its worldwide operations of the Institutional securities and Investment banking businesses. In 2005, after more than two decades with Morgan Stanley, Vikram Pandit decided to leave the firm along with John Havens after being passed over by Philip J. Purcell.

Post Morgan Stanley and joining Citigroup (2006 – 2012)

In March 2006, Pandit and John Havens, along with Guru Ramakrishnan (former global head of trading, technology and new products in the equities group at Morgan Stanley), started the

hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as s ...

Old Lane LLC. Citi bought the company in 2007 for $800 million, bringing both Pandit and Havens into Citi leadership. Citi named Pandit chairman and CEO of Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) unit and he later led Citi's Institutional Clients Group. On 11 December 2007, Pandit was named the new CEO of Citigroup, replacing interim-CEO Sir Winfried Bischoff. Pandit was strongly supported by then interim chairman of Citigroup

Robert Rubin Robert Edward Rubin (born August 29, 1938) is an American retired banking executive, lawyer, and former government official. He served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton administration. Before his government ...

, the effective successor to Chuck Prince. Prince had resigned as chairman and CEO of Citigroup in November 2008, due to unexpectedly poor third-quarter performance, mainly due to CDO- and MBS-related losses. On 11 February 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

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President ...

(TARP) funds. His total 2009 compensation was $128,751, with a base salary of $125,001 and other compensation of $3,750. In January 2011, after working for two years for a salary of $1 a year, his annual base was raised to $1.75 million for the progress Citi made under Vikram's leadership. After posting five consecutive quarterly profits, Citigroup in May 2011, announced $23.2m retention award to Pandit making him one of the highest paid CEOs. In April 2012, shareholders voted against increasing his pay to $15 million. About 55% of the votes cast were against the compensation package. His co-chairing of Davos 2012 was criticized, with Mike Mayo, an analyst with Crédit Agricole in New York remarking: "What kind of signal does that send, that the bank that was the worst-performing in our country over the last decade and whose stock price is still down significantly since he took over, is the ambassador for our financial industry?" At Davos 2012, Pandit said that Citigroup was going "back to the basics of banking" in response to public anger about the financial crisis, and argued that, "The single biggest issue facing us is the question of jobs," giving an estimate of 400 million jobs in the next 10 years.

Resignation

On 16 October 2012, Pandit unexpectedly resigned as Citigroup CEO.

Michael Corbat Michael Louis "Mike" Corbat (born May 2, 1960) is an American banker who served as the chief executive officer of Citigroup from 2012 to 2021. His 2012 welcome from ''The New York Times'' described him as a "Jack-of-All-Trades". Early life and ...

, previously Citigroup's CEO of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, was named as his replacement. While Pandit and the company maintain that he resigned,

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...

cited anonymous board sources indicating that Pandit was forced out by the board after eroding investor confidence and damaging company relations with regulators over an extended period. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' later identified Chairman Michael E. O'Neill as the driving force behind a months-long secret effort to oust Pandit, which culminated in a surprise ultimatum to Pandit stating that he must resign immediately, resign at the end of the year, or be fired. His resignation followed multiple payouts to investors during ongoing fraud allegations.

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 received $165 million for his hedge fund which was purchased by Citi in 2007. The fund has since been closed. In 2012, Citigroup shareholders voted in favor of a non-binding resolution to reject a $15 million pay package for Pandit. In November 2012, Pandit was paid about $6.7 million.

Post-Citigroup

It was reported in May 2013 that Pandit and Hari Aiyar, another Indian executive, were acquiring a 3 percent equity stake in

JM Financial JM Financial (JMFL) is an Indian financial services group headquartered in Mumbai and has branches across India. It also has overseas branches in Ebene, Singapore, New Jersey and Dubai although almost all the group's business are domestic oper ...

and launching a $100 million fund to invest in distressed assets. It was reported in May 2016 that Pandit and Atairos Group created a new operating company, The Orogen Group, to invest in financial services companies with backing from

Comcast Corporation Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

Board memberships and honors

Pandit is a member of the boards of

, Columbia Business School, the

Indian School of Business The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management prog ...

, and Trinity School. He is also a member of

Kappa Beta Phi Kappa Beta Phi () is a secret society, best known for its surviving Wall Street chapter that is made up of high-ranking financial executives. The purpose of the organization today is largely social and honorific. The current honor society meets o ...

. He serves as

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

of the

Institute of International Finance An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

. He was on the board of NASDAQ OMX, the New York City Investment Fund, from 2000 to 2003. In 2008, Pandit was awarded the

by the

Personal life

Pandit, a

naturalized citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

of the United States, lives in an apartment on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. He and his wife, Swati, have two children, Rahul and Maya.

References

External links

Vikram Pandit speaks at Wharton on current crisis.

Charlie Rose , A conversation with Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup

* http://www.firstpost.com/business/vikram-pandit-joins-race-for-indian-banking-licences-651421.html * sustainable development {{DEFAULTSORT:Pandit, Vikram 1957 births Living people American bankers American Hindus American people of Marathi descent American chief executives of financial services companies Citigroup employees Directors of Citigroup Gannon University alumni Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Columbia Business School alumni Columbia University alumni Indian emigrants to the United States Indian bankers Businesspeople from Nagpur People from the Upper West Side American people of Indian descent American chief operating officers Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry Businesspeople from Maharashtra American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies