[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 50 (Tuesday, May 2, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E677-E678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      A FAREWELL TO CITIGROUP WEILL BUILT A GIANT A DEAL AT A TIME

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 2, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the now retired 
Citigroup chairman Sanford I. Weill for achieving the status as one of 
the most powerful financiers this Nation has ever seen. Mr. Weill is 
credited as being the architect of a global financial powerhouse from 
his many business deals and mergers, especially the merger of Citigroup 
and Travelers in 1998.
  Sanford I. Weill is the true embodiment of the American dream. A 
youth growing up in Brooklyn during the 1940s, Weill changed the way 
business deals were brokered. The retirement of Sanford I. Weill has 
been called by many as an ``end of an era'', a time when Wall Street 
seemed to be increasingly dominated by hedge funds and private equity 
firms run by nameless and faceless yet powerful financial brokers. 
Weill is among the last of the classic deal makers who broke many of 
the rules and rewrote history on Wall Street as never seen before.
  Mr. Weill does not plan to return to Citigroup and has since passed 
on the corporation to his successor, Charles O. Prince III the current 
chief executive.
  Retirement for Mr. Weill now consists of an array of philanthropic 
endeavors such as doing work for the National Academy Foundation, a 
nationwide network of career-themed ``schools within schools'' that he 
established, Carnegie Hall, where he has been chairman for the last 15 
years and the Weill Cornell Medical College. Weill also wishes to 
involve himself in health relief efforts for people in Africa, a 
continent with compelling needs to which Mr. Weill's compassion and 
success has been drawn and which can only benefit from his commitment 
and energy.
  I am pleased to enter into the Congressional Record an article 
published in the New York Times on Tuesday April 18, 2006 entitled, ``A 
Farewell to Citigroup'', for its recognition of Mr. Weill for the many 
years that he has put into Citigroup and also for his commitment to 
philanthropy thereafter.

                        A Farewell to Citigroup

                   (By Julie Creswell and Eric Dash)

       Entering his sun-filled office in Citigroup's Manhattan 
     headquarters, Sanford I. Weill punched a few buttons on a 
     computer near a window before looking over his shoulder and 
     smiling broadly. When asked if he had just looked at 
     Citigroup's stock price, he shrugged his shoulders as if to 
     suggest he could not help himself.
       ``It's up 35 cents; it's a good day,'' he noted.
       For years, Mr. Weill and Citigroup were, for all intents 
     and purposes, synonymous. During decades of deal making, he 
     built one of the most powerful and influential financial 
     institutions in the world.
       Today, at the annual Citigroup shareholder meeting at 
     Carnegie Hall, Mr. Weill, 73, will cross the stage and take 
     his final bow as chairman.
       Looking tan and fit thanks to a new diet regimen (exercise, 
     no bread, no butter and, for good measure, no gin), a 
     spirited and joking Mr. Weill insisted that while he intended 
     to keep a close eye on the company and its stock price, he 
     was ready to retire.
       ``I think it's now time for me to turn the page and go to 
     the next chapter of my life,'' Mr. Weill said yesterday. 
     ``I've hung around long enough as the chairman, and I think 
     the company will be well served by having the chairman and 
     the C.E.O. being the same person.''
       Mr. Weill's successor, Charles O. Prince III, the chief 
     executive, assumes the post of chairman today. Citigroup, to 
     be sure, is not sending Mr. Weill away with nothing more than 
     a gold watch and a big thank-you. A black-tie invitation-only 
     party was held last night at the Temple of Dendur in the 
     Metropolitan Museum of Art.
       About 350 of New York's political, financial and cultural 
     elite were expected to attend, including James Dimon of J. P. 
     Morgan Chase; Philip J. Purcell, the former chief of Morgan 
     Stanley; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. 
     Guests nibbled on tiny treats and toasted Mr. Weill's 
     storied career.
       The celebration was as much about Mr. Weill's charitable 
     activities--for Carnegie Hall, the Joan and Sanford I. Weill 
     Medical College of Cornell and a national education 
     initiative--as it is about his leadership of Citigroup.
       The party also seemed to suggest the passing of an era. At 
     a time when Wall Street seems to be increasingly dominated by 
     hedge funds and private equity firms run by nameless and 
     faceless yet undoubtedly powerful financiers, Mr. Weill, once 
     a volatile and insecure boy from Brooklyn, is a throwback. He 
     is among the last of the classic deal makers who broke many 
     of the rules and rewrote history on Wall Street.
       As for Mr. Weill's retirement nest egg, it is all but 
     layered in gold. After earning nearly $1 billion from salary, 
     bonuses and options cashed in over the last decade, Mr. Weill 
     will receive a pension worth more than $1 million a year.
       Under a 10-year consulting contract with Citigroup, he will 
     earn a daily rate of $3,846 for dispensing advice for up to 
     45 days a year. Citigroup will also cover the costs of a car 
     and driver, health and dental insurance for him and his wife, 
     Joan, and rent for an office in the General Motors Building, 
     as well as administrative support.
       Mr. Weill, meanwhile, will continue to fly at no charge on 
     Citigroup jets for the next 10 years. (He voluntarily reduced 
     that benefit, which originally was to allow him free access 
     to the Citigroup fleet for life.)
       One thing Mr. Weill insists he is not going to do in 
     retirement is start a private equity fund. Last summer, Mr. 
     Weill landed in a white-hot media glare after he approached 
     the board about starting such a fund. The board decided that 
     such an endeavor would be competitive and told Mr. Weill 
     that, if he left early to pursue it, he would have to forgo 
     some retirement perks. Mr. Weill ultimately decided not to 
     pursue the venture, and he said he had not changed his mind.
       ``They ended up doing me a big favor. Knowing my 
     personality, whatever I'm going to get involved in, that rush 
     is going to come again that we have to do it the best,'' Mr. 
     Weill said. ``I wanted to do something different, and this 
     gives me the opportunity to do it.'' Despite reports last 
     summer of growing tensions between him and his successor,

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     Mr. Weill said he believed the company--and his legacy--was 
     in strong hands.

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