How Sandy Weill Built His Board Acquisition by Acquisition
from January/February 2002
Not only did Sanford I. Weill use a string of acquisitions to put together America’s biggest bank, he assembled the 16-person Citigroup board the same way—amassing, deal by deal, some of the best-known names in the business and nonprofit worlds, not to mention alumni of the White House, the Treasury Department, and the CIA.The five Weill associates on this page have been with him the longest. M&A lawyer Bialkin goes back to the 1960s and has been helping Weill with his dealmaking ever since. Ford joined Weill in 1980 as a board member of Shearson Loeb Rhoades, a company Weill later sold to American Express. The merger didn’t work out for Weill, and he left, taking over at Commercial Credit, where he invited Zankel, Pearson, and Mecum to join his board.
Through more mergers, the company became Primerica and then Travelers. Jordan, wife of D.C. power broker Vernon, joined Weill in 1989, Armstrong, at that time head of Hughes Electronics, signed on in 1993, and Masin enlisted in 1997. Travelers’ 1998 merger with Citicorp brought in a sixsome of new talent: Belda, Parsons, Deutch, Mark, Derr, and Thomas. John Reed, briefly Weill’s co-chairman and co-CEO, didn’t survive.
For extra gloss, Weill persuaded former Treasury secretary Rubin to sign on at what is now Citigroup in 1999. The following year Weill opened the door to the boardroom again, this time to admit Robert Lipp, a longtime employee.
