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Citibank Chairman Victor Menezes is easily one of the most influential Indians in the world. Priya Ganapati discovers the man behind the success story

Should you happen to be chairman and chief executive officer of Citibank - the banking arm of the $ 14.14 billion Citigroup, with a presence in 101 countries and 230,000 employees - it would be easy to lose all sense of perspective. A $ 27,397,694 paycheck at the end of last year, which included perks and options, would not help matters either.

As he sits alone on a tacky white plastic chair on the porch of a bungalow at his alma mater, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, the appropriate trappings of power for a Citibank CEO are absent. But in the spartan surroundings of the IIT guesthouse at Powai, north Mumbai, he is completely at home.

It's been a grueling day. Menezes has sat through a laboriously long convocation ceremony at his old school, been mobbed by eager beaver students and spent the morning talking to the director and professors at IIT.

With hair graying gently at the temples and a voice, which even at its forceful best, does not rise more than a few decibels, he looks the part of the distinguished banker. He also looks very tired. It has been a 20-hour journey from New York City, where he is based, to Mumbai, which he comes to at least twice a year. He has taken 29 years to cover the distance from a desk in the Fort branch of Citibank in Mumbai, which he joined as a young, energetic manager in 1972, to the distinguished office of CEO, Citibank Worldwide, in the 59-storey Citibank tower in New York. Menezes' underplayed mien does not match the power he wields. He is remarkably humble and unerringly polite. His lack of airs and big banker affectations makes it quite impossible to believe he is among the most powerful men in the international banking community.

Despite being away from India for nearly 20 years, his bonds with the homeland are as strong as ever. He is the quintessential family man. He comes back every year, actually twice a year, to India to spend time with his mother. Menezes' 79-year-old mother, Nina, lives on a quiet leafy street in Santa Cruz, a small middle class suburb in northwest Mumbai and is a prominent member of the Sacred Heart parish as well as the local Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana. She is his strongest link to his country and the reason why he returns every six months. While he globetrotted, staying and working in more countries than you can count on your fingers, his mother chose to stay in Bombay and wait for visits from her son, though she does spend the summer with him at his home

in New York. "She has a very busy life. She is still very active and chooses to live here though we have asked her many times to come and stay with us," Menezes said of his mother.

Last month when he came to Mumbai to be guest of honor at the IIT convocation, Nina was in New York and her son could feel the void. Mumbai just did not feel the same without her. "It feels strange when we pass the house and know she is not there," his wife Tara Menezes told a

friend. "He calls her [Nina] at least once a week. About three years ago, they bought hger a computer so now she emails them a lot and is constantly online with Tara,” says Yolanda Menezes, Victor’s aunt who lives with his mother in Mumbai.

It is humbling to peek into the human side of a man revered in financial circles for his acumen. It is perhaps this facet that separates him from other high performers with equally dramatic career graphs.

"What makes Victor unique is his very eclectic mix of qualities: He is smart as hell and very clear on what he wants to achieve. Yet he balances it with unquestionable integrity, well-rounded perspective, humility and an ability to get on with all kinds of people," said youngest brother Ivan Menezes, president, emerging markets, for Diageo, the premium spirits company that counts Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Bailey's in its portfolio.

All three Menezes boys have done well for themselves. Victor's other brother, Michael Menezes, a vice-president with Bank of Montreal in Canada, says the credit goes to their parents, Manuel and Nina Menezes. A civil engineer, Manuel started his career with Indian Railways, the largest rail network in Asia, and rose to become its chairman. He earned a reputation as an honest, upright and caring officer. "He was very hardworking and had tremendous goodwill among his colleagues. A lot of people came to him for advice ranging from what to do at work and what career choices their children should make," recalls Yolanda.

Manuel was the biggest influence in Victors life. He taught his children that success and happiness are not defined by who you are and what you do, but by living life with a compass of principles, a bushel of ideas, a generous dose of fun and most of all in sharing and making a difference to the lives of those around you.

"My father was instrumental in me making many of the choices I did. As chairman of Indian Railways, he had a million people working for him. I will never have a job as big as his," the Citibank boss said. The oldest of four children — three boys and a girl — Menezes was born in Pune, 180 kilometers from Mumbai, on May 19, 1949. Though his early years were spent in Pune, his father's frequent postings throughout the country meant the Menezes boys did their schooling at St. Mary's, a Christian boarding school in the hill station of Mount Abu in the western state of Rajasthan. Alma maters hold pride of place in Menezes' life. They have provided him with the grounding he wanted, while teaching him how to fly.

IIT Mumbai, from where he acquired a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, taught him nearly all the lessons he would need to call upon in his career. It was at Manuel's insistence that Victor decided to go to IIT. It proved to be the best decision of his life. Menezes was a good student at IIT, but not outstanding. The boy who made good grades and knew his subjects well (and incidentally liked the canteen's masala dosa best) was better known for his skills as an orator. The debating society at IIT helped Menezes hone his communication skills. The soft-spoken, shy boy emerged as an unlikely champion in the fierce verbal duels that characterized the debates at Powai. He won over his opponents through a mixture of calm logic, unflappable poise and the ability to keep his head when the going got rough — the same qualities that helped him navigate his 29 years at Citibank, the only employer he has ever worked for. "Victor won most of the time. He knew how to keep his head at the debates and attack his opponents' arguments. Everyone wanted him on their team because he could win," recalled one of his seniors at IIT.

IIT also taught him the lessons responsible for his professional success. The ethnically diverse students he lived and interacted with made it easy for him to adapt to the new markets he was constantly given charge of. "In my class, there was a Kashmiri, a Tamilian, a Punjabi and a Parsi. Dealing with such diversity was an amazing learning experience," he acknowledged. IIT also brought out a side to Menezes that not many, except his family, have seen. At H8, the hostel where he lived during those four years at the elite institution, he earned a reputation as a prankster.

"We spent a lot of time playing tricks on our hostel mates. Our favorite trick was to tie the end of a long thick rope into a knot and sneak up to the next floor. We would then lower the rope and tap someone's door with the end of the rope. Menezes would then pull the rope up so that when the person opened the door, there would be no one. Do this a few times and one of our room mates would be tearing his hair out in frustration," laughed Hoshie Bess, a roommate at IIT.

Agreed his aunt Yolanda, "Victor has a great sense of humor. He is always making people laugh. He is very sporting and has the ability to laugh at himself." After IIT, Menezes went to the Sloan School of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for an MBA, majoring m finance. It was the desire "to do something broader" that prompted the switch. "I wanted to have more options I did not want to join a technical firm and work there for the rest of my life," he said.

How did Menezes handle the transition? "It was very easy. All the equations I learnt at MIT were the same as that of IIT. Just the variables changed. You deal with the fundamentals and try to not get absorbed by the nationalistic quirks that you see. The key is to stay focused," he said.

Says Ram Kelkar, managing director, Merrill Lynch, IITian and former Citibank colleague, "It may seem surprising that Victor, an electrical engineering graduate, is CEO of the world s largest bank. But this is emblematic of the quality of the all-round education provided by the IITs. It is not so much a mere apprenticeship in technical skills but truly a broad based liberal education. IIT taught us how to think, analyze and apply. These are universal skills and are as useful to an engineer in Silicon Valley as they are to a banker on Wall Street."

After MIT Menezes interviewed with many financial firms on Wall Street. He chose Citibank because it offered him a chance to come back home. He wanted to spend time with his family, something he could not do during school and college. In 1972, Menezes joined Citibank's corporate banking division in Mumbai on a monthly salary of Rs 2,000. With his first salary he took his folks out to dinner. He has worked with the bank since. Five years later, in 1977, when he took over as Citibank's CEO for India, he was only 28.

The 10 years he spent in India were to be among the most important in his life. Though he moved around between Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, it was the time he renewed bonds with his family, thanks to his father.

"Manuel was a patriarch in every sense. He kept his family together and ensured that his children developed strong bonds with each other. Menezes' biggest role model has been his father. In that sense he too has always given priority to his family over work," says aunt Yolanda. In 1982, Menezes left India to go to New York. From then on, he moved countries, each time adding another conquest to his career. In Hong Kong, he went as head of the bank's largest Asian operation. In Latin America he played a key role in Grafting a $ 3 billion write-off during the 1987

Jerry Rao, former CEO of Citibank India and a friend, felt Menezes' outstanding communication and presentation skills made him stand out. "I once heard Victor make a speech on the Latin debt crisis to an audience of over 1,000 professionals who were spellbound by its clarity and comprehensiveness," Rao recalled.

Even with a fast-paced career, he ensured his four children did not miss him. "My father gave 100 per cent of himself at the office, but the minute he walked in the door, we knew his family was his main priority. I don't think any of my siblings ever felt his job compromised his responsibilities as a father. He was very much involved in our lives, and if work took him on long business trips, he would always ring home every day regardless of what time it was in Mexico, Poland or Hong Kong," says his eldest daughter, Pia, a trader on Wall Street.

In 1995, Menezes was named chief financial officer, Citibank. He had by then traveled the full circle. There was no division he did not know intimately. From corporate banking, handling mergers and acquisitions, dealing with international financial markets to consumer banking, he had proven his worth in each. "His wide geographic experience was almost without parallel within the organization. It was an ideal fit for a company committed to being a global presence," said

However, professional success came with personal heartbreak. Manuel was diagnosed with throat cancer. It was a blow to the family. Victor tried to persuade his father to move to America where he could organize the best treatment for him. But Manuel refused to leave the country. He believed the doctors in India were as good as anywhere else in the world. A year later, he passed away. Victor was devastated.

But the family rallied together. He instituted scholarships in his father's memory and gave money to the local church. On the professional front it was getting a bit rocky. After the John Reed-led Citibank merged with Sanford Weill's Travelers Group to form Citigroup in 1998, tensions flared

between the strong-willed leaders of the two groups. Menezes regarded Reed as his mentor, a debt he acknowledged many times. Reed was forced to leave the company in 2000 and Menezes lost the biggest influence in his professional life. "Reed was clearly the person who helped Victor rise so quickly through his career. But after the turmoil within the company, Victor was the only survivor left from the senior management at Citicorp," noted a former colleague.

Menezes had few enemies within the organization and had proved his worth in every division of the bank's business. Over the years he had managed to build up a network of good managers loyal to him. "I think it comes down to him being competent and low key. He showed results and had a team of people working for him and delivering the for him, which is very important in a large organization,” says the former colleague.

Despite the 'Reed' label he carried, Weill had no doubt about anointing him as CEO of Citibank in March 2000. Menezes shrugs off questions about how he survived. "I think Citi has a competitive culture. Yet, it is a meritocracy. I think you can't run a global bank the way we do without having a meritocracy. There are always corporate clashes. You have to learn to deal with it," he said.

Prof. Menon, Victor Menezes and Tara Menezes

Credit for some of that down-to-earth attitude can be attributed to his attractive wife, Tara. A former Miss India, and the second Indian to be crowned Miss Asia Pacific in 1973, Tara Ann Fonseca gave up the limelight once she became Mrs Victor Menezes. Her father Luis was a colonel in the Indian army, and like the Menezes, the Fonsecas too hailed from Goa.

"Tara is a wonderful woman. While she might seem sophisticated, she is at heart extremely simple and has given Victor a very stable family life. She provides him with a lot of strength and helps him keep his sense of balance," revealed Victor's aunt Yolanda.

The IIT Mumbai Heritage Fund is another project Menezes has been devoted to. The fund is an attempt by IIT alumni to help IIT achieve economic independence. Currently, all the IITs are funded by the Indian government.

“When IIT Mumbai's deputy director met with us he apprised us of the new economic reality facing the IITs whereby funding was frozen at early 1990s levels with no adjustment for inflation, or for growth and new projects. We immediately saw the inevitable impact this dramatic change was going to have on the quality of education and the infrastructure of IIT. This news was a call to action for me, Victor and many IITians on the West Coast," explained Kelkar who launched the fund from the trading floor of Citibank where he then worked.

“It is my way of giving back to society," Menezes said quietly. Sidestepping further questions about his charity work, he continued, "I think we have a very good educational system. The exposure to English is an advantage. Also, we deal with a lot of complexity and a result develop a cultural bandwidth, which is the reason why Indians can successfully adjust to the different kinds of people they meet abroad."

Just a successful career does not make a man. Victor Menezes proves this hypothesis. For the people who have known him and come to admire him through each step of his journey in life it is perhaps only incidental that he is the top man at Citibank.

His cousin Vivek Menezes, who works with the Tatas and lives with Yolanda, says Menezes' low key attitude is not just at work. At home he is just one of the gang. His simplicity has become an accepted fact within the family. "He is a very down to earth guy, extremely simple and very much in love with his family. He is the kind of guy who gets embarrassed by any show of in wealth.

"When he is here there is a queue of Citibank Mercs [Mercedes] outside our is house and Victor gets terribly embarrassed m by it. He hates to travel around in them ie when he is in the area," laughs Vivek. It is id Vivek or his wife Jillian who usually drives him around in their tiny vehicle or the bigger wagon.

Adds aunt Yolanda, "Though he lives at the Taj [Mahal hotel] whenever he can he spends every minute with us. He will walk us to the nearest grocery store to pick up things or get a hair cut. Its difficult to I believe he is such a big man in the US." I "I think my father is an incredibly intelligent and gifted person," said Pia, "but what I will always admire is his humility and I keen sense of humor. If you were to meet I him in the street, you would never know he I is the CEO of Citibank. He is so grounded I as an individual. Despite his high pressure I job, he knows how to leave the office I behind and have a good time with the family.

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