Moneycontrol Bureau
Former Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit is gearing up for a second innings in the financial services industry, which he now has been associated with for three decades now.
Pandit, 56, will
be nominated as non-executive chairman of the bank that Nimesh Kampani-promoted JM Financial proposes to start if it succeeds in getting RBI approval.
Pandit and his business partner Hari Aiyar will each buy 1.5 percent in JM Financial through share warrants, and will be investing another USD 200 million for expanding JM’s financing business and for setting up a distressed asset fund.
Here are 10 things you may want to know about Pandit’s life and career progression.
* Vikram Pandit was born in Dhantoli locality of Nagpur, Maharashtra, and completed his schooling at the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School in Dadar, Mumbai.
* He moved to the United States at age 16. He enrolled in Columbia University, earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering.
* After a brief stint as a professor of economics, Pandit joined Morgan Stanley as an associate in 1983.He eventually rose to the post of President and Chief Operating Officer of the company's institutional securities and investment banking businesses.
* Pandit quit Morgan Stanley in 2005 after differences of opinion with then CEO Philip Purcell resulted in Pandit being passed over for the top job.
* In March 2006, Pandit and former Morgan Stanley colleagues John Havens and Guru Ramakrishnan started a hedge fund, Old Lane LLC.
* Citigroup bought out Old Lane in 2007 for USD 800 million, and got Pandit on board as chairman and CEO of Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) unit.
* In December 2007, Pandit was named the new CEO of Citigroup, in place of Chuck Prince, who had been fired the previous month for Citi’s massive losses in the sub-prime lending business.
* In February 2009, Pandit said he would work for a salary of one dollar without bonus till the bank returned to profitability. (He was paid USD 1,28,000 in 2009). In 2011, he got USD 23.2 million as retention bonus for the company’s strong financial performance. But the following year, shareholders voted down a proposal for a USD 15 million pay raise.
* In October 2012, Pandit was forced to step down from his post after a losing a boardroom battle, said to be engineered by Chairman Michael E. O’ Neill.
* Pandit serves on the boards of Columbia University, Columbia Business School and the Indian School of Business. A naturalized US citizen, he lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
