Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit's biography | Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit quits abruptly
Vikram Pandit,the Nagpur-born CEO of Citigroup Inc,abruptly resigned on Tuesday after nearly five years at the helm of the worlds largest financial services network.
The resignation,which came just a day after the firm reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings,sent shock waves through the financial world.No reasons were cited but Citigroups board said Pandit had stepped down as chief executive effective immediately,and would be replaced by the head of the banks European and Middle Eastern division,Michael L Corbat.
In a pro-forma departing statement,Pandit was quoted as saying,given the progress we have made in the last few years,I have concluded that now is the right time for someone else to take the helm at Citigroup,and that he could not be leaving the company in better hands.
Indeed,Pandit was credited with pulling Citigroup out of terminal decline when he was unexpectedly thrust into the top position in 2007 just before the financial crisis hit.
Son of a pharma representative and businessman from India,Vikram Shankar Pandit came to the US when he was only 16 for undergraduate studies at Columbia University,home to several prominent Indian academics including economist Jagdish Bhagwati,philosopher Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,and also alma mater of Dr B R Ambedkar.He earned a bachelors and masters degree in electrical engineering before earning a finance PhD.
