Citigroup has named former Time Warner chief executive officer Richard Parsons to head its board of directors, replacing Chairman Win Bischoff after the US bank posted a record $18.7 billion net loss last year.
The appointment is effective February 23rd, the New York-based bank said yesterday in a statement. Mr Parsons (60) was the lead independent director since July 2008. Bischoff (67) became chairman in December 2007.
Citigroup's board turns to Mr Parsons, who ran Time Warner from 2002 to 2007, as it faces pressure to improve corporate governance and overhaul a failed strategy that forced the bank last year to seek $45 billion of bailout funds from the US government.
His selection may do little to cheer shareholders who wanted more-radical change. Parsons has been on the board "all through this period of disaster," said Porter Bibb, managing partner at New York-based Mediatech Capital Partners LLC, which advises media and technology companies.
"He has a genius for surviving." Mr Parsons has been a Citigroup board member since 1996. In a statement last week, Parsons said the "anticipated departures" of directors would provide an "opportunity to reconstitute the board."
Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary who had been a top Citigroup executive and board member since 1999, announced plans to step down two weeks ago after being criticized by investors for failing to help steer the bank clear of the subprime mortgage market's collapse.
Bloomberg