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Walter Wriston

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Person.png Walter Wriston  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(Banker)
Walter C. Wriston.jpg
BornAugust 3, 1919
Middletown, Connecticut, U.S.
DiedJanuary 19, 2005 (Age 85)
Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWesleyan University, Fletcher School, Tufts University
ReligionMethodist
Member ofBohemian Grove, Council on Foreign Relations/Historical Members, Links Club, RAND/Notable Participants
Chairman of Citigroup 1970-84

Employment.png Chairman of Citigroup

In office
1970 - 1984
Preceded byGeorge S. Moore
Succeeded byJohn S. Reed

Walter Bigelow Wriston was a banker and chairman and CEO of Citicorp. As chief executive of Citibank / Citicorp (later Citigroup) from 1967 to 1984, Wriston was widely regarded as the single most influential commercial banker of his time.[1][2]

With then New York Governor Hugh Carey and investment banker Felix Rohatyn, Wriston helped save New York City from bankruptcy in the mid-1970s by setting up the Financial Control Board and the Municipal Assistance Corporation, and persuading the city's union pension funds and banks to buy the latter corporation's bonds.[3]

Early life

Wriston was born in Middletown, Connecticut, to Ruth Bigelow Wriston, a chemistry teacher, and Henry Wriston, a history professor at Wesleyan University who was later president of Lawrence College and Brown University. Wriston attended grade school and high school in Appleton, Wisconsin.[4]

Education

He attended Wesleyan University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941. While there, he was a member of the Eclectic Society and received the "Parker Prize" ("Awarded to a sophomore or junior who excels in public speaking"[5]). He received a Master's Degree from Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1942.

Career

After graduate school, Wriston became a junior Foreign Service officer at the State Department, where he helped negotiate the exchange of Japanese interned in the United States for Americans held prisoner in Japan. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942, he served in the U.S. Army for four years, being with the Signal Corps on Cebu in the Philippines during his service.

After his discharge, he joined Citibank as a junior inspector in the comptroller's division. He rose steadily through the ranks until he became chief executive of Citibank in 1967 and three years later the chairman of both it and Citicorp.

Wriston was an opponent of John F. Kennedy, stating "Who is this upstart President interfering with the free flow of capital?".[6]

During his tenure as CEO, the bank introduced, among other innovations, automated teller machines, interstate banking, the negotiable certificate of deposit, and "pursued the credit card business in a way that no other bank was doing at the time".[7][8]

Wriston was twice offered the job of Secretary of the Treasury, once by Richard Nixon and once by Gerald Ford, but turned down both offers.[1] One report is that Wriston declined the offers because these were not made to him personally by the then-President. Wriston also would have had to take a substantial pay cut had he accepted the government position.

He was Chairman of The Business Council in 1981 and 1982.[9] From 1982 to 1989, Wriston was chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board.[10]

Wriston died on January 19, 2005, in Manhattan, New York City, New York, at the age of 85.

 

Events Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/196218 May 196220 May 1962Sweden
Saltsjöbaden
The 11th Bilderberg meeting and the first one in Sweden.
Bilderberg/196420 March 196422 March 1964US
Virginia
Williamsburg
A year after this meeting, the post of GATT/Director-General was set up, and given Eric Wyndham White, who attended the '64 meeting. Several subsequent holders have been Bilderberg insiders, only 2 are not known to have attended the group.
Bilderberg/19883 June 19885 June 1988Austria
Interalpen-Hotel
Telfs-Buchen
The 36th meeting, 114 participants
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References