New Citigroup CEO has a strong religious streak

Dec 12, 2007, 15:32 GMT

Nagpur, Dec 12 (IANS) He may be a financial wizard with a keen eye for a flaw in the market and a rare acumen to turn around a bad economy. But in personal life, Vikram Shankar Pandit, the newly appointed of New York-based Citigroup, remains an exceptionally 'simple and unassuming man' with a strong religious streak.

Even as a wave of excitement swept across the corporate world in India with the news of an Indian making it to the top of the world's biggest banking institute within six months of joining it, his uncle Suresh Pandit, a retired bank officer here, was inundated with greeting calls and mediapersons seeking information about his nephew's personal life.

Born in the central Indian city of Nagpur Jan 14, 1957 - the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti, Pandit studied in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Nagpur before shifting to the US at the age of 16 when his father, then a senior executive in Sarabhai Chemicals, was transferred to the overseas wing of the pharmaceutical major.

'Vikram was a brilliant student with an unfailing meritorious record even in the Columbia University where he did his masters in electrical engineering and doctoral studies in public finance,' a beaming Suresh Pandit told IANS.

'But he has remained strikingly simple and unassuming all though his academic and professional career.

'And as a retired bank officer, it fills me with a sense of pride to know that my nephew got an offer from Citigroup to head its key sections even as it bought up a hedge fund he had floated a year earlier,' he recalled.

Referring to Citigroup's unprecedented downslide at the moment, Suresh Pandit said it should be a matter of pride for the whole country that an Indian who first made a mark in Morgan Stanley was called upon to pull the world's biggest banking group from an economic morass.

'I am sure he will succeed in his assignment,' he said.

Vikram's father Shankar Pandit, who after retirement divides his time between his son's New York home and his house in Navi Mumbai, too was confident about the banker's ability to turn around Citigroup.

'Vikram rose to the highest position and made a mark in Morgan Stanley... and I am sure he will succeed here too,' Shankar Pandit told reporters in the satellite town of Mumbai, India's financial capital.

A deeply religious person, Vikram visits the famous shrine of Sant Gajanan Maharaj, a revered 19th century saint with a large following in Shegaon of Vidarbha region, every time he comes to India.

'There is a room bearing his name in the shrine's Bhakt Nivas (a lodge for devotees),' Suresh Pandit said.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service