Citi Names Cross-Sales Executive

Bloomberg News

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. has hired a management consultant to help it fulfill a two-year-old promise to sell products to customers across all its business lines, according to an internal memo and the new executive himself.

Ahmed Fahour, 34, Citigroup's head of development, joined the company and its management committee in November after leaving Boston Consulting Group Inc. Mr. Fahour was based in the group's Sydney office, advising companies in the Asia-Pacific region on corporate strategy and merger integration. Citigroup has not publicly announced Mr. Fahour's appointment.

"When I came in we wanted to keep it low-key," Mr. Fahour said.

When Citigroup was formed two years ago in the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group Inc., chief executive Sanford I. Weill said the goal was to cross-market its products.

The idea was to sell insurance to the company's credit card customers, mutual funds to its banking customers, investment and investment banking services to its corporate banking clients, and the like. Though Citigroup has had some success in cross-selling investment banking products, its consumer business has lagged.

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