Michael E. O'Neill (born October 31, 1946) is an American business executive. He served as chairman of

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services company based in New York City. The company was formed in 1998 by the merger of Citicorp, t ...

from 2012 to 2019.

Early life and education

O'Neill was born in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, and spent much of his early life in

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in European Civilization in 1969 and served as a lieutenant in the

Marines Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included Raid (military), raiding ashor ...

between 1969 and 1971. He received an MBA in 1974 from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

Career

In 1974, O’Neill joined

Continental Illinois The Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company was an American bank established in 1910, which was at its peak the seventh-largest commercial bank in the United States as measured by deposits, with approximately $40 billion in assets. ...

. He moved to First Interstate Capital Markets in 1984 and returned to Continental in 1989 to manage its

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

advisory business, becoming CFO in 1992. After Continental was acquired by

BankAmerica The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Ca ...

, he became head of its global equity investments division from 1994 to 1995. From 1995 to 1999 he was BankAmerica's CFO. In 1999 he became chief executive of

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

but resigned after two months because he had developed an arrhythmic heartbeat. From 2000 to 2004 he was chairman and CEO of

Bank of Hawaii The Bank of Hawaii Corporation (; abbreviated BOH) is an American regional commercial bank headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is Hawaii's second oldest bank and its largest locally owned bank in that the majority of the voting stockholders re ...

. In 2009 he became a member of Citigroup's board of directors, and in September 2011, he became chairman of the bank's Citibank NA division, and was named chairman in March 2012. He retired in 2019.

Resignation of Vikram Pandit

On October 16, 2012, then CEO

Vikram Pandit Vikram Shankar Pandit (born 14 January 1957) is an Indian American banker and investor who was the chief executive officer of Citigroup from December 2007 to 16 October 2012 and is the current chairman and chief executive officer of The Orogen ...

unexpectedly resigned and was replaced by Michael Corbat. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' later identified O'Neill as the driving force behind a months-long secret effort to oust Pandit, which culminated in a surprise ultimatum to Pandit stating that he must resign immediately, resign at the end of the year, or be fired. His resignation followed multiple payouts to investors during ongoing fraud allegations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Michael E. Directors of Citigroup Businesspeople from Santa Monica, California Princeton University alumni University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumni American chief executives of financial services companies American chairpersons of corporations Living people 1946 births American chief financial officers