Sandy Weill is Chairman Emeritus of Citigroup Inc. Mr. Weill retired as CEO of Citigroup on October 1, 2003, and served as Chairman until April 18, 2006.
Mr. Weill, who had been Chairman and CEO of Travelers, became Chairman of its predecessor, Commercial Credit Company, in 1986, successfully leading the company through a public stock offering by its then-parent, Control Data Corporation. Commercial Credit acquired Primerica Corporation in 1988 and adopted its name until 1993, when Primerica acquired The Travelers Corporation and adopted the Travelers Group name. In 1997, the company acquired Salomon Inc. and combined it with its Smith Barney unit to form the global securities and investment firm, Salomon Smith Barney.
Prior to 1986, Mr. Weill had been President of American Express Company and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of its Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company subsidiary. His affiliation with American Express began in 1981 when the company acquired Shearson Loeb Rhoades. Shearson’s origins date back to 1960 when Mr. Weill and three partners co-founded its predecessor, Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill. He served as the firm’s Chairman from 1965 to 1984, a period in which it completed over 15 acquisitions to become the country’s second largest securities brokerage firm. In 1993, when Travelers Group acquired Shearson Lehman Brothers’ retail brokerage and asset management businesses, he was reunited with the firm he founded.
Mr. Weill became a Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2001 and served in this capacity until December 31, 2006. He also served as a Director on the Boards of United Technologies Corp. from 1999 to 2003, AT&T Corp. from 1998 until 2002, and E. I. Du Pont Nemours and Company from 1998 until 2001. Mr. Weill is a former member of The Business Council and served on the Working Group on Child Care, headed by then U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Robert E. Rubin. In 2002, Mr. Weill was the recipient of Chief Executive magazine’s CEO of the Year Award. The EastWest Institute awarded Mr. Weill their distinguished Corporate Leadership Award in December 2005 at an event in London with Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mr. Weill is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a Director of The Qatar Foundation, International Board; Director of Koç Holding, headquartered in Turkey; and Director of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.
President Bush asked Mr. Weill, along with four other private sector business leaders, to lead a nationwide effort to encourage private donations for relief and reconstruction in response to the South Asia earthquake that occurred on October 8, 2005. Working with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, a nonprofit forum of CEOs and Chairpersons, to which Mr. Weill was named Chairman of the Board in July 2004 and is now Honorary Chairman, Mr. Weill and the business leaders quickly established the South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund. Through the efforts of Mr. Weill and the business leaders, the private sector raised over $116 million in cash and in-kind services to help the earthquake victims.
The 1997 recipient of the New York State Governor’s Art Award, Mr. Weill has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Hall since 1991. For Mr. Weill’s 70th birthday, Carnegie Hall raised a record $60 million in one evening thru a generous $30 million match by Mr. and Mrs. Weill for the Weill Music Institute, which established broad-reaching music education programs.
Mr. Weill is Chairman of the Board of Overseers for The Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University, having joined the board in 1982 and becoming chair in 1996. Weill Cornell established the first American medical school overseas in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. This was made possible through a special partnership between Weill Cornell and the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. Weill Cornell’s inaugural class in Qatar graduated this past May. Mr. Weill also serves on the Board of Governors of Sidra, a 380-bed Specialty Teaching Hospital that will be completed in 2011 in Qatar. Sidra is supported by a $9 billion endowment from the Qatar Foundation. A Trustee Emeritus of Cornell University, Mr. Weill serves on the Advisory Council of its Johnson Graduate School of Management. In addition, he is a Trustee of New York Presbyterian Hospital and an Overseer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Long a proponent of education, Mr. Weill instituted a joint program with the New York City Board of Education in 1980 that created the Academy of Finance, which trains high school students for careers in financial services. He serves as Founder and Chairman of the National Academy Foundation (NAF), which oversees more than 500 career-themed Academies in 41 states, as well as the District of Columbia. Ninety percent of NAF’s students graduate, with most going on to post-secondary education – often as the first in their families to attend college.
The Real Deal: My Life in Business and Philanthropy, Mr. Weill’s book, is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller.
A longtime friend of President Gerald R. Ford’s, Mr. Weill was an Honorary Pallbearer at the late President’s State Funeral. Mr. Weill is also a Trustee of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. Mr. and Mrs. Weill are recipients of the 2009 Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy Award.
Mr. Weill, who was born on March 16, 1933, is a graduate of Cornell University. He and Joan have been married for 55 years. They have two children and four grandchildren.