Dimon Turns to Citi, Again

September 06, 2000, 1:00 a.m. EDT 3 Min Read

Bank One Corp. chairman and chief executive officer James Dimon has installed one of the final members of his senior management team, and not surprisingly, the executive is an alumnus of Citigroup Inc.

James Boshart, who has been co-CEO of Citi's European investment bank, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, started Tuesday as executive vice president and head of Bank One's capital markets group.

Mr. Boshart fills the remaining vacancy at the head of a business line and is one of the last top-tier hires Mr. Dimon plans to make as he overhauls the fifth-largest U.S. banking company, which has been beleaguered by disappointing earnings.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Dimon said he plans to appoint a head of systems and operations, but has "pretty much" wrapped up his senior level appointments.

Since taking the chief executive job in March, Mr. Dimon, the former Citigroup president, has lured several executives away from Citi or its subsidiaries, including Charles Scharf, who has become chief financial officer, and Michael Cavanaugh, now Bank One's senior vice president for strategic planning.

Mr. Dimon said the bank has "some great opportunities" in capital markets, and he will rely on Mr. Boshart to find them.

"The reason he's here is to help figure out what the exact strategy should be," he said. "We're ambitious, but we're ambitious in a way that makes sense for Bank One."

Bank One is not a big name in capital markets, and analysts had predicted that Mr. Dimon, who was also co-chief of Salomon Smith Barney, would not let his expertise in investment banking go to waste.

Mr. Dimon said the bank has numerous weaknesses in this area. "I'm a very critical person," he said. "I can give you a long list of them, but there's none that we can't change or fix. Obviously we just want to do a better job. I honestly believe that we can do a lot more than we're currently doing, and we can be very competitive in a lot of areas," including syndicated lending, asset-backed securities and derivatives, he said.

Mr. Boshart, 55, is a 30-year veteran of investment banking. He succeeds F. Gerald Byrne, who left the bank in May in what some observers deemed a housecleaning aimed at bringing in more Wall Street experience.

Susan Moody, head of middle-market banking, and W.G. Jurgensen, head of corporate banking, left Bank One around the same time Mr. Byrne did. R. Michael Welborn was promoted to replace Ms. Moody, and David P. Bolger was elevated to Mr. Jergensen's spot. Mr. Boshart, Mr. Welborn, and Mr. Bolger all report to Mr. Dimon.

Mr. Boshart joined Smith Barney in 1990 as a manager of public finance and was promoted to head of capital markets in 1995. Two years later, when Smith Barney merged with Salomon Brothers, he was named vice chairman and co-head of investment banking. He had been co-CEO of Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, based in London, since 1998, when he made a two-year commitment to the post.

"I think he's the best manager I've ever met," Mr. Dimon said. "He did one exceptional job [in Europe]. It was losing money and people, and now it's really doing fabulously."

Mr. Boshart said he reevaluated his opportunities at the end of his two years. "I called Jamie because he said some very nice things about me, and those feelings are mutual," he said.

Mr. Boshart had considered taking other positions within Salomon Smith Barney or at other firms, but the Bank One job was "just a real fit," he said.

Analysts predicted that a major shift would not occur in Bank One's capital markets strategy, at least initially.

"I'm not so sure that Jamie Dimon wants to make them a capital markets oriented bank or investment bank, but there are opportunities," said Chris Blum, an analyst at Edward Jones.

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