Word: citicorps
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Reed's triumph was the climax of a highly unusual, highly publicized elimination tournament for the top spot. It began on Jan. 1, 1980, when Wriston and the Citicorp board elevated three officers to the new post of senior executive vice president. In addition to Reed, the head of the consumer division, the contenders were Thomas C. Theobald, 46, who oversaw lending to corporations and foreign governments, and Hans H. Angermueller, 59, the director of legal affairs and lobbying. Wriston never explicitly said that one of these men would be the next chairman, but to outsiders his move appeared...
Reed, who studied industrial management and engineering at M.I.T., was attuned to the potential of technology and seemed a natural to lead Citicorp in the new era of electronic banking. Theobald was the traditional button-down banker, a statesman who was equally comfortable talking finance with corporate chiefs or foreign heads of state. Angermueller was not really a banker at all. He was a Harvard-trained lawyer who was adept at breaking down the legal barricades that stood in the way of Citicorp's moves across state boundaries and into new businesses like stock brokerage...
From foreign central bankers to Citicorp mail clerks, everyone was willing to handicap the contest. At first, many Citicorp executives bet on the smooth-talking Angermueller, who was more popular than the sometimes abrasive Reed and the often arrogant Theobald. Then Theobald seemed to get ahead on the basis of Citicorp's profitable foreign lending operation, which was riding high until Latin American debt problems arose in 1982. Wriston refused to drop any hints about who was in the lead. In 1982 he promoted the three in tandem to the title of vice chairman. All earned precisely the same...
...boyish-looking Reed, who was nicknamed "the Brat" early in his 19-year Citicorp career, seemed like a long shot to be chairman because the consumer division he had directed since 1974 was a big money loser. Prodded by Wriston, Reed had moved aggressively to open consumer-loan offices from coast to coast. He had acquired the Carte Blanche and Diners Club credit-card companies and signed up 2 million new customers across the U.S. for Visa cards...
...faces these challenges, Reed can use the talents of the two men he defeated for the chairmanship. Angermueller, only six years from retirement, may stay on, but insiders fear that Theobald will leave. Says one Citicorp executive: "He'll go take over somebody else's bank. I'm sure he won't work for Reed...