Citi appoints Fraser's chief of staff to new strategy, IR job

• Key insight: Margo Pilic, Jane Fraser's chief of staff for the past five years, has been promoted to a newly created job, the bank announced in a memo.
  
• What's at stake: Pilic's new job at Citi combines long-term strategy development with investor engagement, two critical areas as the bank starts its next chapter with Fraser at the helm.
  
• Forward look: Fraser's new chief of staff, Rafael Soeda, will take over in August, the bank said.

Citi has promoted CEO Jane Fraser's chief of staff to a new role that combines companywide strategy development with investor-relations communications, two critical areas as the global bank begins its next chapter with Fraser at the helm.

Margo Pilic, Fraser's chief of staff since March 2021, will become the head of strategy, M&A and investor relations, according to an internal memo shared with American Banker. A Citi employee for 26 years, Pilic is moving into the job at the same time the $2.8 trillion-asset bank enters what executives have called "a new era" after years of rebuilding.

Last month Citi, which has been in overhaul mode since Fraser took over as CEO in early 2021, launched its next multiyear growth plan, laying out plans to achieve sustained profitability and higher shareholder returns. In the years following the 2008-09 financial crisis, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets struggled with a number of issues, including inadequate risk management, missed financial targets and a sprawling, sometimes underperforming business model.

Pilic will report to Gonzalo Luchetti, Citi's chief financial officer, a company spokesperson said Wednesday in an email. She will begin assuming strategy and M&A responsibilities over the next few weeks and then add the investor-relations responsibilities in August, the memo said.

Fraser expressed high praise for Pilic, who's been Fraser's only chief of staff during her time as CEO.

"For the past five years … Margo has been at the center of all our firm has accomplished," Fraser wrote in the memo to employees. "She has been a key thought partner for me on our strategy refresh, our reorganization and all the work we have done to transform our firm."

In her new role, Pilic will succeed two individuals: Tim Karpoff, a former Barclays banker who joined Citi in 2021 as its head of strategy and M&A, and Jennifer Landis, who is moving on from the head of investor relations job to become CFO of Citi's markets business, starting in August.

Karpoff is leaving the bank at the end of June, the memo said. Landis will succeed Francis Genesi, the interim CFO for markets who will retire from the bank at the end of July. Genesi is also currently serving as CFO for global functions, operations and technology, and the bank will conduct a search to fill that role, the memo said.

During Landis' tenure as head of investor relations, she rebuilt the investor relations team and revised earnings processes, disclosures and analytics, according to the memo. Last fall, the bank's stock reached $100 per share for the first time since 2008, Luchetti said in the memo.

Rafael Soeda will take over as Fraser's chief of staff in early August. Soeda joined Citi in 2010 after working at JPMorganChase for nearly 13 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He currently serves as Citi's chief operating officer for its services business, a role he's held since 2023.

In the memo, Fraser said Soeda "played a key leadership role" in Citi's ongoing separation from its Mexican retail subsidiary Banamex, which has been part of the bank's strategy shift in recent years. Soeda's "capacity to grasp high-level strategy, rapidly process complex data and ensure daily priorities align with long-term goals make him the ideal choice" to be chief of staff, she said.

Pilic is at least the second chief of staff for Fraser who's moved into a significant leadership role at the bank. Kate Luft, Citi's head of U.S. retail banking and Citigold since late last year, served as Fraser's chief of staff before Fraser was promoted to CEO, including during the period when she led Citi's Latin American unit.