Sandy Weill '55 is Hatfield speaker in Rockefeller, April 2

By Linda Myers

Sanford I. Weill, chairman and CEO of Citigroup, whose Wall Street triumphs are the stuff of legend, will give this year's Hatfield address at Cornell Wednesday, April 2, at 4:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Auditorium of Rockefeller Hall.

Weill

Weill, a member of the Cornell Class of 1955, will speak as the 2003 Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, the highest honor the university bestows on outstanding individuals from the corporate sector. His talk is free and open to the public.

The financial community views Weill as perhaps the most prominent and successful Wall Street dealmaker of the contemporary era. His image has graced the covers and pages of Forbes, Fortune, Business Week and The New York Times Magazine. "Fearless about seizing big opportunities," according to The Times Magazine, Weill continues to dazzle others with his prescient ability to acquire the right companies at the right time and shape them into mega-moneymakers. Also impressive is his Phoenix-like quality of rising from the ashes of adversity to go on to ever greater successes.

The Weill story remains one of the most inspiring rags-to-riches tales in American finance. Starting out as a runner on Wall Street in the late 1950s, Weill formed a small securities partnership that he transformed into brokerage giant Shearson Loeb Rhoads. He sold the firm to American Express for almost $1 billion in 1981 but remained on board.

From this point on in the saga, the names of companies change so often that a scorecard might be needed to keep track. Edged out of his leadership slot at AmEx in 1985, Weill bought Control Data's Commercial Credit unit, used it to acquire a financial services conglomerate called Primerica in 1988, a year after that firm bought the brokerage house of Smith Barney, Harris Upham. Then Weill did a neat turnaround and bought the Shearson retail brokerage and asset management businesses back from AmEx in 1993. He also acquired The Travelers Corp. that year, trimming and reshaping it. In 1997 Travelers bought the venerable investment banking firm of Salomon Brothers to form Salomon Smith Barney Holdings.

After such an array of accomplishments most CEOs might have rested on their laurels, but not Weill, who went on to make an even bolder deal. In a blockbuster merger, one of the most profitable ever, he combined with Citibank/Citicorp in 1998 and became co-CEO of the renamed Citigroup with John Reed, a Cornell Hatfield fellow that year. Reed stepped down in 2000, leaving Weill at the top of what The Times Magazine called "the first global financial firm of the 21st century."

Throughout his career, Weill has been an active supporter of Cornell, offering internships to students and visiting campus frequently. In 1984 he was named the university's first Entrepreneur of the Year. In 1998 Weill and his wife, Joan, made history when they committed $100 million to Cornell's medical college and graduate school of medical sciences, the largest single gift in the history of the university. The college and school have since been renamed the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University in honor of the couple. Weill serves on the college's board of overseers and is a trustee emeritus of the university. In 2001 Weill made a personal appearance on Cornell's Ithaca campus to recruit graduating seniors to his firm. He is the only CEO of a financial mega-firm to do so.

During his campus visit on the day of his Hatfield talk April 2, Weill will discuss leadership with MBA students and Johnson School Dean Robert Swieringa over lunch and talk with students who have interned at Citigroup. On the agenda as well is an address to students in the courses "Current Topics at the Crossroads of Law and Finance" and "Financial Markets and Institutions."

Weill will be honored by President Hunter Rawlings and Elizabeth Rawlings at a reception and dinner at the Johnson Museum followed by a piano performance by Cornell professor of music Malcolm Bilson.