Vikram Pandit is one of the most popular and richest American banker who was born on January 14, 1957 in Nagpur, India. Vikram Shankar Pandit (born 14 January 1957) is an Indian American banker and investor who served as the head of the executive team at Citigroup from December 2007 until 16 October 2012. He is currently chief executive officer and chairman for The Orogen Group.
His contribution was crucial in the development of Morgan Stanley’s trading platform for electronic trading as well as its prime brokerage division. He in 2000, he was elevated to the position of chief operating officer for its global operations for the Institutional Securities and Investment Banking business.
In March 2006, Pandit and John Havens, along with Guru Ramakrishnan (former global head of trading, technology and new products in the equities group at Morgan Stanley), started the hedge fund Old Lane LLC. Citi bought the company in 2007 for $800 million, bringing both Pandit and Havens into Citi leadership. Citi named Pandit chairman and CEO of Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) unit and he later led Citi’s Institutional Clients Group.
While CEO of Citigroup in 2007, Vikram S. Pandit earned an annualized compensation of $3,164,320, which included a base salary of $250,000, stocks granted of $2,914,320, and options granted of $0. In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $38,237,437, which included a base salary of $958,333, stocks granted of $28,830,000, and options granted of $8,432,911. However, after adjusting for Citigroup’s sunken share price, the package was worth just a few million dollars. Pandit received $165 million for his hedge fund which was purchased by Citi in 2007. The fund has since been closed. In 2012, Citigroup shareholders voted in favor of a non-binding resolution to reject a $15 million pay package for Pandit. In November 2012, Pandit was paid about $6.7 million.
Pandit is a board member of Columbia University, Columbia Business School as well as Columbia Business School, the Indian School of Business, and Trinity School. He is also an active participant in Kappa Beta Phi. He is head of the Institute of International Finance. His board included NASDAQ OMX, the New York City Investment Fund, between 2000 and 2003.
