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Sallie Krawcheck, Citigroup's chief financial officer and one of Wall Street's most powerful female executives, is being shunted back to her old job running the company's global wealth management arm - the latest rearrangement of deck chairs at the troubled financial giant.
Krawcheck will replace Todd Thomson, who quit the company yesterday, ending an era where the two vied to succeed current Citigroup chief executive Chuck Prince.
Krawcheck's star has fallen sharply in the two years since she swapped jobs with Thomson. Her failure to rein in costs has drawn fire from shareholders.
Last month, Prince promoted his long-time colleague Bob Druskin over the heads of Thomson and Krawcheck, creating a new post of chief operating officer with a brief to slash costs. He also now, temporarily, takes over the global wealth management arm until a new chief financial officer is hired to free up Krawcheck.
Craig Woker, an analyst at Morningstar, said the move could be good for Krawcheck, a hands-on operations manager, who had reportedly been unhappy with the finance role for some months.
"Citigroup ... bills the switch back as a promotion for Krawcheck - it's like Lake Wobegon, where everyone's moving up," said Woker. "Putting her back in wealth management lets her succeed in a job she had proven successful in. The real question becomes ... whether she sticks around."
Citigroup's global wealth management division includes the Smith Barney fund management and investment research business, and a private bank. Analysts were split on whether her return to the division increased the chances that it may be split off, as some investors have been demanding.
- INDEPENDENT
