- The Merrill Lynch veteran Andy Sieg took over Citi's struggling wealth unit in September.
- At least 25 senior executives, including five of his direct reports, have left since he joined.
- More exits are expected as Sieg slashes costs and pushes bankers to earn investment fees.
Citi shed 7,000 employees in the first quarter of the year. But the leadership of its ailing wealth unit is continuing to undergo major changes under its new boss, Andy Sieg.
At least 25 senior executives exited Citi's wealth unit since Sieg, a Merrill Lynch veteran, joined in September. Sixteen of the ex-employees had worked at Citi for at least 15 years. These veterans include five of Sieg's 14 direct reports, such as Naz Vahid, the head of the fastest-growing division within Citi Wealth that caters to rich law-firm partners and other executives.
Sieg said at a Morgan Stanley conference on June 12 that few of these departures were regrettable.
"We have had a substantial number of departures, but those departures really come through a level of rigorous self-examination of the business," he said. "We've needed to drive significant change across the team, and we're making those changes."
Julia Carreon, the global head of wealth platform and experiences, wrote in a LinkedIn post in June that she quit to found a menopause wellness company. David Bailin, who departed in May as the chief investment officer, is starting an investment advisory business for family offices. Most of the other departing executives haven't disclosed their reasons for leaving. Citi has undergone a restructuring that reduced the number of management levels to eight from 13.
More exits could be on the way. To turn around the barely profitable wealth unit, Sieg is laser-focused on getting advisors and bankers to sell as many investment products as possible. He said at the conference that only one-third of advisors were meeting expectations.
One of his other goals is to expand Citi's already successful wealth business in Asia. He holds up the bank's reputation among rich customers in Asian capitals such as Hong Kong and Singapore as an example for the rest of the division.
Despite this success, Asian executives have also left the firm amid the upheaval. In February, Sieg attended the ribbon cutting for two new wealth hubs in Singapore for clients with at least $1 million in assets. One month later, Shyam Sambamurthy, the South Asia region head whose purview included Singapore, resigned after 36 years at Citi. At least five other senior Asia executives have left.
Sieg installed a former colleague from Merrill, Don Plaus, when the private bank's North American head, Halé Behzadi, retired in March. He has also hired Dawn Nordberg to lead client-referral efforts between the investment bank and the wealth division. Nordberg, a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, will officially join Citi in September. Keith Glenfield, another Merrill colleague, will start in September as global head of investment products.
Here is our running list of senior departures from Citi Wealth. This list was originally published on April 17 and last updated on July 3, 2024.
Name | Title | Departure date | Years at Citi |
David Bailin | Chief investment officer for Citi Global Wealth | May 2024 | 19 |
Halé Behzadi | Head of private banking for North America | March 2024 | 22 |
Francesco Bertoni | EMEA head, investment management | November 2023 | 20 |
Alfonso Camacho Bustillo | Global head of market sales and distribution | May 2024 | 20 |
Julia Carreon | Global head of wealth platform and experiences | June 2024 | 2 |
Laurie Chan | Global head of alternative investment sales | March 2024 | 1.5 |
Hoyt Gier | Global market manager, Western North | January 2024 | 13 |
Roger Hardon | Head of alternative investment sales | June 2024 | 25 |
Paul Hodes | Asia head of investments, Citi Private Client and Citigold | February 2024 | 16 |
Robert Hoffman | Head of investment counselors for South Asia | January 2024 | 10 |
Keith Lee | Hong Kong high-net-worth market manager | March 2024 | 1.5 |
Li-Gang Liu | Head of Asia Pacific economic analysis | January 2024 | 7 |
Fernando Lopez Munoz | Head of private banking for Latin America | September 2023 | 19 |
Giuliano Malacarne | Head of investment finance and banking | November 2023 | 37 |
Alex Marshall-Tate | Strategy head for multi-asset and alternative mutual funds | January 2024 | 17 |
Eduardo Martinez Campos | Head of wealth services and strategic investments | November 2023 | 20 |
Mark Mills | Regional investment head for EMEA | December 2023 | 24 |
Luigi Pigorini | Head of global wealth and private bank for EMEA | Early 2024 | 39 |
Shyam Sambamurthy | South Asia head of wealth, international head of Citigold and Citigold Private Client | June 2024 | 36 |
Fernando Senso Castilla | Global market manager, Latin America North | January 2024 | 20 |
Karthik Srinivasan | Global head of business sales performance management and scorecards | May 2024 | 24 |
Jeff Sutton | Global head of portfolio solutions and manager research for private bank | April 2024 | 4 |
Mehrnaz "Naz" Vahid | Global head of wealth at work | June 2024 | 38 |
Eduardo Ventura | Latin America head of strategic segments for private bank | April 2024 | 4 |
Seamus Yin | Global market manager for mainland, South, and West China | April 2024 | 10 |
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