Victor Menezes to head Citi's revamped India Advisory Board

Citigroup today announced a revamped advisory board for its India operations to counsel on strategic matters and brand building.

Citi India was in news recently after one of its wealth managers was accused of defrauding clients.

Headed by Victor Menezes, former senior vice-chairman (Citigroup), the new panel includes Nanoo Pamnani, ex-CEO of Citibank India, Pradeep Bhide, former revenue secretary, and Harish Manwani, president for Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Unilever.

Anil Menon, president (globalization and intelligent urbanisation), Cisco Systems, also finds place on the board. Apart from heavyweights from the corporate world and former bureaucrats, Shirish Apte, CEO Citibank Asia Pacific, and Pramit Jhaveri, CEO Citibank India, will also join the board as Citi representatives.

The board will provide independent counsel to Citi’s management team in India to enhance ability to build on the company’s long presence in India.

The brief includes providing counsel on developing the corporate and consumer franchise, distribution strategy, brand building & positioning and talent development.

Citigroup’s image was recently affected by a fraud involving one of its employees looking after the wealth management at its Gurgaon branch. The bank has maintained that the episode was an isolated event.

Shivraj Puri has been accused of luring 40 high net worth individuals and corporate entities to invest in a bogus investment scheme on the pretext of high returns, while diverting the funds to the stock market.

The victims of the fraud include the promoters of the Hero Group (Rs 250 crore) and Helion Advisors Managing Director Sanjeev Aggarwal (Rs 33 crore), among others.

Citibank has begun work on compensating customers affected by the Rs 400-crore fraud.

The outgoing members of the board include management guru Gurusharan Das, advertising professional Suhel Seth, Tata Sons Director J J Irani and former Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman G N Bajpai.

Fitch Ratings has assigned F1+ (Indx) rating to Citi’s India Branch.