NEW YORK — The anger was evident at Citigroup’s annual meeting, where all nominated directors were elected but shareholders took turns at the microphone to vociferously object to the bank’s performance over the past year.
The meeting is usually a well-attended affair lasting many hours as shareholders air their grievances, and Tuesday’s gathering was as somber and full of ire as ever. When chairman Richard Parsons recognized the five departing members of the board, who include ex-chairman Win Bischoff and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, one man from the audience yelled out: “Thank God you’ve gone!”
Despite the rancor on the floor, all returning directors and four new ones were elected with at least 70 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results. And while some shareholder proposals came close to passing, preliminary results showed that none did.
Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit tried to bring a more upbeat atmosphere to the ballroom at the New York Hilton hotel, emphasizing that Citigroup is not the same company it was a year ago, when it became clear the bank was buckling under the weight of billions of dollars in bad debt.
Pandit said the four new board members bring “new eyes” to the bank: former U.S. Bancorp chief executive Jerry Grundhofer; former Bank of Hawaii chief executive Michael O’Neill; former Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Anthony Santomero; and Wil liam S. Thompson Jr., former chief executive of Pimco.
