Citigroup Finds Taker for Hard Job

Talk about a tough job description: Help wanted. Chief financial officer for one of the world's largest banks. Must be able to reverse a course of underperformance for which the company's chief executive has taken the blame.

For Gary L. Crittenden, who was named yesterday as Citigroup's new finance chief, it is "the best job I could ever imagine."

Mr. Crittenden has spent the last six years as the chief financial officer at American Express, where he has gained a reputation on Wall Street as a team player who can help make a company's numbers and strategy match. On March 12 he will take on the same job at Citigroup, where his boss, chief executive Charles O. Prince III, is under intense pressure to lift the stock price and corporate revenue, as well as to trim expenses.

If Mr. Crittenden does a good job, the post puts him on a potential path to succeed Mr. Prince.

Mr. Crittenden said in a telephone interview yesterday that he would get know his colleagues and develop his own views before announcing any formal strategic plans for the bank. "I don't pretend to have any deep insight into Citi, but what I do know is the company has scope and scale and a brand that is very impressive."

Well-respected within the financial services industry, Mr. Crittenden is seen as somebody who can help Mr. Prince deliver on long-promised growth. While he lacks an investment banking resume or a history of managing a diverse portfolio of businesses, he brings with him a wide range of experiences. He managed retail operations at Filene's Basement. He helped oversee American Express' credit card portfolio and international operations.

Mr. Crittenden is also known for developing good relations with many of American Express' large investors, many of whom also have big Citigroup stakes. He also has long espoused the strategic course that Mr. Prince has laid out but has been slow to deliver: operational efficiency, international expansion, and internal growth.

"This is the happiest day I have had in a long time," Mr. Prince said in an interview yesterday. "Gary is here to help Citi grow."

A graduate of Brigham Young University and a Harvard University, where he earned an M.B.A., Mr. Crittenden began his career as a management consultant at Bain & Company, where he befriended a colleague, Kenneth I. Chenault.

More than two decades later, they once again worked closely together -- this time at American Express. Mr. Crittenden was the chief financial officer; Mr. Chenault became the company's chairman and chief executive in 2001.

(Yesterday, Mr. Chenault named Dan Henry, the head of American Express's credit card business in the United States, as the company's acting chief financial officer.)

For Mr. Prince, the selection of a new chief financial officer was crucial. If Mr. Crittenden can help him kick-start the company, the two may be able to lift Citigroup out of its rut.

Robert E. Rubin, the chairman of Citigroup's executive committee and former Treasury secretary, said in an interview yesterday that reports that Mr. Prince's job was in jeopardy were "immensely wrongheaded." Quite the contrary, the influential Citigroup director said. Mr. Prince was focused on the challenges ahead.

"Ever since he has been CEO, he has been focusing on a wide array of issues that need to be addressed," Mr. Rubin added. "In many areas, he has accomplished a lot of thing. But there is still a lot that needs to be addressed."

Mr. Prince is under pressure from investors to improve the company's sluggish stock price at a time when many of its banking rivals have posted stellar numbers. Citigroup's rising expenses have also drawn serious concerns and revenue growth has revenue has slowed. Investors have been critical of how Mr. Prince has executed on his plans. And analysts say that the company's recent top management changes suggest that Mr. Prince was slow to recognize serious missteps.

In the slate of changes made in January, Mr. Prince removed Todd S. Thomson, the head of Citigroup's global wealth management group, for abusing executive privileges.

Sallie L. Krawcheck, who was Mr. Crittenden's predecessor as Citigroup's finance chief, was moved into Mr. Thomson's job amid mounting dissatisfaction from Wall Street investors and reports that she was unhappy in the job.

Earlier, in December, Mr. Prince named Robert A. Druskin as the company's new chief operating officer, ending an 16-month period in which no member Citigroup's Office of the Chairman had substantial experience in managing bank operations, critics said. He also gave him a mandate gave him a mandate to flush out more than $1 billion dollars in structural costs.

But as early as last fall, the bank had put out informal feelers for someone to succeed Ms. Krawcheck, according to two people briefed on the situation. Some Citigroup officials, inlcuding Mr. prince, dispute this notion.

Prince Goldsmith, an executive recruiting firm specializing in the financial services industry, was initially engaged by Citigroup's board to conduct a search for the wealth management job, but had it was given the additional mission of finding a chief financial officer job. Its challenge: find a candidate with deep experience in being a chief financial officer, a broad enough background in global financial services and enough gravitas to be Mr. Prince's potential successor.

Once the Mr. Prince made the announcement public in mid-January, Citigroup's search for a new financial chief began in earnest. Mr. Prince said yesterday that the company vetted 40 candidates and interviewed 10 current and former chief financial officers. Among those believe to have made it on the short list: Naguib Kheraj of Barclays in Britain; Douglas Flint of HSBC Holdings; Howard I. Atkins of Wells Fargo; David Sidwell of Morgan Stanley. Dina Dublon, who left J.P. Morgan Chase in 2004, and Alvaro de Molina, who abruptly left Bank of America last December, were also considered for the job.

But Mr. Crittenden stood out from the pack of candidates. After a joint in-person interview at Citigroup's Park Avenue headquarters, shortly the search was made public in January, Mr. Prince and Mr. Rubin left impressed.

"I thought he seemed very sophisticated financially but also had really good sense about how you think about companies and strategic issues," Mr. Rubin said. "And he knew about the consumer business."

Mr. Prince called him "the best of the best."

Shortly after, Mr. Prince made him the offer over breakfast in Citigroup's dining room. But only recently did they finalize the details of his contract and pay. He earned $2.3 million in non-equity compensation last year, compared with $5.82 million for Mr. Krawcheck, but is estimated to hold more than $40 million worth of American Express stock.

"I thought he was an outstanding," Mr. Rubin said. "The question was was whether could get him."

On Friday, Mr. Rubin got his answer. Mr. Crittenden told his longtime longtime associate, Mr. Chenault, that he was leaving American Express.