Citigroup has hired a senior Deutsche Bank executive to lead its business in the UK as its long-serving chief executive in the country, James Bardrick, steps down after a decade in the role.
Tiina Lee will take over as CEO for the UK at Citigroup, according to a memo seen by Financial News, succeeding Bardrick — a veteran of the bank who has held various senior positions during his 35-year tenure.
Lee will take charge of more than 15,000 employees at Citigroup as it embarks on a bid to overtake Wall Street rivals in European investment banking.
Bardrick is a veteran dealmaker who moved across to Citi when it acquired Schroders’ investment bank in a $2.2bn deal in 2000. In 2009, he was promoted to co-head of corporate and investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, becoming UK CEO four years later.
He has worn several hats at Citigroup in recent years including Citi country officer for the UK as well as taking on additional responsibility for Jersey and Israel in a 2019 shake-up. Bardrick is also CEO for Citigroup Global Markets Limited, an entity that overseas markets and investment banking activity both in the UK and internationally, a role Lee will take over.
READ Citi’s UK boss opens up on his mental health struggles
Lee, meanwhile, has spent the past 26 years at Deutsche Bank and has led its UK and Ireland business since 2018. She has held various senior roles at the German lender including heading up some trading and capital markets businesses. Lee was previously head of UK strategy and chief operating officer for the UK before taking the CEO role.
She has featured on FN‘s 100 Most Influential Women in Finance list nine times.
“James has been a tremendous leader at Citi for a long time, both within our banking business and for the past 10 years as the head of our UK franchise,” David Livingstone, Citi’s Emea CEO said in a statement. “Tiina will be an outstanding leader of one of our most important global franchises.”
Bardrick has been a vocal proponent of improving work-life balance at Citigroup after speaking openly about his own struggles with mental health when his first marriage broke down. The comments came amid a broader push to encourage “empathy” among employees at Citigroup under chief executive, Jane Fraser.
“If your mental health is not right, you’re not stable, you’re not confident and you’re not optimistic — you’re sad. It has to impact you, but if you feel you can’t talk to your manager or your colleagues about it, it gets worse,” Bardrick told FN previously.
Lee takes charge at Citigroup amid a renewed push to gain the top spot in Emea investment banking. The US bank, which has ranked third for a number of years in the region, is looking to displace rivals Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan at the top of the league tables, and has been reorganising its senior ranks and hiring top dealmakers.
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