American Express CFO to Join Citigroup

Citigroup Inc. Sunday announced the appointment of former American Express Co. executive Gary Crittenden as its chief financial officer. As a part of the reallocation declared last month Sallie Krawcheck, replaced Todd Thomson as Citigroup's head of global wealth management. Mr. Crittenden, 53, will now take his seat and embark on the new job from March 12. He will report directly to Citigroup Chairman and Chief Executive Chuck Prince.

Prince came under condemnation after the reshuffle which saw the dismissal of Todd Thomson as head of Citigroup's wealth management business. Thomson was considered as one of the few credible internal candidates to succeed Prince, as the CEO of the world's largest financial services group.

It was critical for Prince's integrity to find a strong candidate for the job and as the search ended on Crittenden, he believed him to be one of the leading chief financial officers in business today. Crittenden’s experience as a CFO was also a plus point.

"Gary has demonstrated an exceptional ability to help the organizations he has worked for to generate superior value by supporting the successful execution of their business strategies with the development and implementation of sophisticated financial strategies," Prince said in a written statement. "Gary's proven record and expertise in strategic financial management, together with his substantial experience in the consumer business, will accelerate our growth across the franchise."

Crittenden stated that Citi has tremendous resources and a CFO Job could not have been more interesting than this one.

Crittenden started working with American Express as executive vice president and CFO in June 2000. In June 2005, he became head of the company's Global Network Services unit. He made significant moves that helped American Express become one of the best performing companies in the financial sector.

American Express named Dan Henry, the company's executive vice president and CFO of U.S. consumer, small business and merchant services, as acting CFO.