Be Like Mike?
No word on whether he'll slick his hair back for the event, but Michael Douglas — aka Gordon Gekko — is heading to Hong Kong next month to address more than 1,500 institutional investors gathering at the 17th annual CLSA Investors' Forum.
The Hollywood actor will headline 30 or so keynote and specialist speakers scheduled to present at the conference, during which clients of CLSA — bank analyst Mike Mayo's firm — will be treated to the first international screening of "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" 10 days ahead of the film's Sept. 24 release in the U.S.
But attendees should not expect to hear a "greed is good" theme from Douglas, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a 1980s corporate raider in the original "Wall Street." CLSA promises that the actor will address topics ranging from "filmmaking to nuclear abolition and the prevention of small-arms proliferation" during his Sept. 15 lunch speech.
Return Engagement
Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has joined boutique investment bank Centerview Partners, more than a year after he left Citigroup Inc., a person familiar with the situation said Thursday.
Appointed a counselor at Centerview, Rubin will be working with five to six large clients of the firm and will also advise on its strategic development, the person said.
Rubin, a former director and senior counselor for Citigroup, left the company in January 2009 after being blamed by some for pushing it to rev up risk-taking as the housing and derivatives bubbles expanded. At an appearance before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in April, Rubin apologized for the bank's role in the financial crisis, but said he was unaware of problems with collateralized debt obligations that were eventually written down to the tune of $30 billion.
Retirement Plan B
Westina Matthews Shatteen is a gifted speaker, a prized mentor and an awful retiree.
The longtime Merrill Lynch & Co. executive, who left the firm last year after its merger with Bank of America Corp., sent an e-mail this week to friends and colleagues in which she acknowledged that she is "happily flunking retirement" and packing her bags for an international affairs fellowship at Harvard University, where she will spend the coming academic year researching the ways in which women "are influencing public policy in gender budgeting, with a particular focus on Burundi."
Matthews Shatteen, who spent 24 years at Merrill in positions involving philanthropy, diversity and community relations, also has remained active in the Executive Leadership Council, a group for African-American corporate leaders. Nine years ago she started the group's annual Black Women on Wall Street conference. In April, she co-chaired the ELC's Black Women's Leadership Summit in Washington.
