A Farewell to Citigroup

For years, Weill and Citigroup were, for all intents and purposes, synonymous. During decades of deal making, he built one of the most powerful and influential financial institutions in the world. Today, at the annual Citigroup shareholder meeting at Carnegie Hall, Weill, 73, will cross the stage and take his final bow as chairman.

Looking tan and fit, a spirited and joking Weill insisted that while he intended to keep a close eye on the company and its stock price, he was ready to retire.

8216;8216;I think it8217;s now time for me to turn the page and go to the next chapter of my life,8217;8217; Weill said yesterday. 8216;8216;I8217;ve hung around long enough as the chairman, and I think the company will be well served by having the chairman and the CEO being the same person.8217;8217; Weill8217;s successor, Charles O. Prince III, the chief executive, assumes the post of chairman today.

Citigroup, to be sure, is not sending Weill away with nothing more than a gold watch and a big thank-you. A black-tie invitation-only party was held last night at the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About 350 of New York8217;s political, financial and cultural elite were expected to attend, including James Dimon of JP Morgan Chase; Philip J. Purcell, the former chief of Morgan Stanley; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; and the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Guests nibbled on tiny treats and toasted Weill8217;s storied career.

The party seemed to suggest the passing of an era. At a time when Wall Street seems to be increasingly dominated by hedge funds and private equity firms run by nameless and faceless yet undoubtedly powerful financiers, Weill, once a volatile and insecure boy from Brooklyn, is a throwback. He is among the last of the classic deal makers who broke many of the rules and rewrote history on Wall Street.

As for Weill8217;s retirement nest egg, it is all but layered in gold. After earning nearly 1 billion from salary, bonuses and options cashed in over the last decade, Weill will receive a pension worth more than 1 million a year.

Under a 10-year consulting contract with Citigroup, he will earn a daily rate of 3,846 for dispensing advice for up to 45 days a year.

Citigroup will also cover the costs of a car and driver, health and life insurance for him and his wife, Joan, and rent for

an office in the General Motors Building, as well as administrative support. Weill, meanwhile, will continue to fly at no charge on Citigroup jets for the next 10 years.

One thing Weill insists he is not going to do in retirement is start a private equity fund. Last summer, Weill landed in a white-hot media glare after he approached the board about starting such a fund.

The board decided that such an endeavor would be competitive and told Weill that, if he left early to pursue it, he would have to forgo some retirement perks. Weill ultimately decided not to pursue the venture, and he said he had not changed his mind.

To some, Weill engineered a global financial services colossus, a profit powerhouse with earnings last year of nearly 25 billion. Weill8217;s critics, however, see a company that became too big and unmanageable, with a 8216;8216;win at all costs8217;8217; culture that eventually came to haunt it in the late 19908217;s as Citigroup became ensnared in the scandals surrounding Enron, WorldCom and analyst research on Wall Street.

8216;8216;We built a business model that is second to none, have the strongest balance sheet, the most customers, and we8217;re in the most countries,8217;8217; said Weill, listing what he sees as Citigroup8217;s strengths. 8216;8216;But there are lots of potential opportunities to take what has been built so far and grow it to the next level.8217;8217;

Weill becomes a consultant today, as stipulated in his contract, although it is unclear what his duties in that role will be.

By now, the story of how Weill rose to become one of the world8217;s most powerful bankers is well known. After being ousted as president of American Express in the mid-19808217;s, Weill began rebuilding his career at a down-and-out consumer lending outfit in Baltimore called Commercial Credit.

Over time and through a series of quick and sometimes messy acquisitions Weill and his team of deal makers cobbled together a financial services behemoth.

The pinnacle of Weill8217;s career, though, was in 1998, when Travelers merged

with Citicorp, the largest global bank in the country, in a 70 billion deal. The merger was stunning not just because of its size but because it shattered the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that prevented banks from offering certain financial services.JULIE CRESWELL and ERIC DASH