Citi's Krawcheck to head wealth management

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Citigroup moved Sallie Krawcheck, its chief financial officer, to the head of its Global Wealth Management division, the nation's largest financial services firm announced Monday.

Krawcheck, 41, who also held the title of head of strategy for Citigroup (Charts), will make the move when her replacement is found.

Sallie Krawcheck, who will head Citigroup's Global Wealth Management division.

Her new title is chairman and CEO of the unit that includes Citigroup Private Bank, Smith Barney and Citigroup Investment Research.

Krawcheck will take a position formerly held by Todd Thomson, 45, who is leaving the company to take up undisclosed future plans.

In the interim, until Krawcheck can assume her new duties, the division will be overseen by Robert Druskin, the company's chief operating officer.

While Citigroup's statement termed Krawcheck's move a promotion, it is in some ways the undoing of a move she had already made. In November 2004 she and Thomson shifted jobs into the positions they held until this announcement, with Thomson giving up the CFO and head of strategy post to become head of Smith Barney, and Krawcheck moving from the head of Smith Barney to become the CFO and head of strategy.

"Through these appointments, Todd will be able to expand his skills by running one of our key operating units. And Sallie will get a broad view of our entire global organization through a critical corporate role," CEO Chuck Prince said at that time.

Citigroup has been under fire on Wall Street for stock performance that lagged not only other major banks such as JP Morgan Chase (Charts) and Bank of America (Charts), but also badly trailed gains at major Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs (Charts), Morgan Stanley (Charts) and Bear Stearns (Charts).

Citigroup shares saw their best gains in December after Druskin was named chief operating officer and joined the firm's office of the chairman, which includes Prince and Robert Rubin, the chairman of the firm's executive committee. Shares are up about 6 percent since that announcement.

Shares of Dow component Citigroup (up $0.37 to $54.87, Charts) gained just less than 1 percent in early trading Monday after being up as much as 1.9 percent earlier in the day.

Citigroup reported fourth-quarter earnings Friday from continuing operations of $1.03 a share, up from 98 cents a share a year earlier and a bit better than the $1.00 a share forecast from analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. But shares edged up only slightly on the news.

Krawcheck came to Citigroup in 2002 as the company and other Wall Street firms were facing charges of manipulating stock analyst research in order to win investment banking business. She had been chairman and CEO of independent Wall Street investment research firm Sanford Bernstein, and was seen as having the untarnished reputation needed to clean up the problems at Smith Barney.

Krawcheck was ranked No. 9 on Fortune's list of 50 most powerful women in business in October, although she was the second-youngest person on the list, behind only Charlene Begley, then 39, the CEO and president of General Electric's plastics business.

Begley is under some pressure, as GE announced Friday it is looking at whether to exit that business.

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