Jane Fraser, Chief Executive Officer, Global Consumer Bank; President, Citigroup
Interviewer: Claire Zillman, Fortune

MPW Summit 2020: One On One with the Next CEO of Citi

Jane Fraser, Chief Executive Officer, Global Consumer Bank; President, Citigroup

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As she becomes the first woman to lead a big Wall Street bank.

Hello. I'm Fortune editor Claire Zelman joining you from Hong kong when the news broke last month for the first time a woman would lead a major U. S. Institution just about all of us here today undoubtedly said it's about time jane fraser will become ceo of Citigroup in february, a tremendous step forward for women everywhere, not just in banking or the corporate world. We're thrilled to have Gene with us today at Fortune MbW summit. Hi jane, thank you so much for joining us. Oh thank you very much indeed for having me, lovely to see you again. Claire Great! I want to take you back to that day. I think it was September 10 when your promotion was announced. I have never seen such an outpouring. I mean it was being a line of people not only excited that you had been promoted but that this glass ceiling on Wall Street had finally cracked. Um they were just sort of elation, can you take me back to that day? What what was it like for you? Oh, and just before we go there, I do want to just say a huge thank you to Fortune. Uh Nina patty. Ellen yourself have been such tremendous supporters for all of all of us, um female leaders in the industry and across industries and a very heartfelt thank you to me for me for that. Um Yes, it was, it was it was an amazing day. It was one of celebrating um Mike Corbat, who I think has been a wonderful ceo at city and really lead with such tremendous integrity and brought up bank from a crisis to a very different position. And it was also a day of um frankly I felt very proud um as you can imagine, it was the amount of women who were talking about, you know, young women about their aspirations or fathers who were talking to me about for their daughters, but that sense of yes, they could. Um and uh one of the the anecdote, so like with one of our leaders on the trading floor, she was saying that she had told her young daughter that you know, in Mommy's company was now going to be a mummy boss um and daughter asking can I be a mummy boss one day, and she said, oh yes, you can, and I think that's the piece of this, this is and there is a first for all of us. Um but I think the other piece I really loved about that day was how all the women come out and support of each other and you know, tremendous outreach from from competitors who had a dear friends as well, and many fortune alums and regular attendees that reached out, and it shows how really breaking the myth that women don't support each other because oh my goodness, we certainly do. Yes, definitely. Um I love that Mommy boss. Um so you're going to be taking over in february language. Um you know, I think they just, they will still be a really challenging time. Can you talk about some of your day one priorities when it comes to sending this role? I think Mike's given a real gift, which is, you know, a five month transition, because obviously what you want that transition to be a smooth one. So they say one doesn't feel quite um such a big bang as it were. Uh and the priorities won't be fairly, fairly simple ones. Um well, will be, as you say, in still quite challenging times, we're in the midst of this pandemic, we hope things will be improving them, but we don't know. And so a critical piece is going to be looking forward and saying, you know, what has changed in the world, what is the new normal looking like and going to look like and how to position the bank for that. There's gonna be questions around, what is the future of work, Where will people be working? Uh digitization has been supercharged in um certainly in banking industry, but I know from our clients, it's been supercharged everywhere. What does that mean for the business models in the future? And how do we make sure that uh you know, we're also addressing some of the dislocations that people will be feeling of our own customers and clients. So it will be quite a lot on the plate to be thinking about. But it's certainly going to be looking at, you know, how to position the organization for for that future. Um and uh making sure that we're a bank with a brain as well as a bank with a soul, right? So you're now the exception to the rule when it comes to, you know female, the horizontal ST. I'm wondering if when you look back at your career, I think 14 years that City, if I have that 16 years of the city about it, right? Um and before that, McKinsey and Goldman, Can you identify a one or 2 jumpers that were really critical to getting you where you are now? Uh I was up for partner and it was the same time my husband and I were wanting to start a family and I got quite a lot of advice that you don't get, don't get pregnant in your partnership year. Um and I just thought that was nonsense. Um and I was fortunate to and uh and then I made the decision that my husband was working hard and I said I you know, I want to be a mom and I want to be a professional, so I was lucky, I got my partner just a couple of weeks after my son was born, but I worked part time for the entirety of my partnership at Mckinsey. And um I think that that's one of the pieces of making sure I did have balance a juggling act, but there was a balance between my family priorities and my professional priorities and sometimes one will take priority over another and I'm so happy I did. That wasn't easy. Um My own ego um suffered a bit on that one because you do see people who are more junior than you that are accelerating faster than their careers, but um I think that's what enabled me to have you feel happy and have a balance in my, in my professional life and in my personal life, and it made me much more empathetic. I know when I got back to working again, um and I was in the working full time, my clients used to tell me you're a much more empathetic person, to remind myself person, you were just this machine beforehand. And I think it really taught me that that 80, if you can't do everything um, is a good lesson. The second one was um, when at one point again, when the kids were fully bully in school and um My husband and I were both working, but I was offered the job of running strategy for city at the very beginning of the crisis. And that was really up in my game from the role that I played and I used to not be comfortable unless I was 120% prepared for anything. Um, and it was a real leap of faith in my mind to jump into taking this role and I had to up my game, I was going to have to be traveling more. And one of my friends said to me, why are you worried about failing go for it? Um You know, what, what does it matter if that's the case? And I think that was another moment when taking on a role that I knew was a stretch. Um, and but but I up my game and I learned and I got hooked on stretch rolls thereafter because you do learn so much. Yeah, well I'm interested in in your decision to work part time at Mckinsey. And I think that or I'm wondering what advice you would have someone who wants to make that decision now, because I do think it is an admission of vulnerability and I think there's a lot of fear that asking for that sort of flexibility or or arrangement uh signals that I'm not the type of person that wants to excel or you know, maybe I won't ever come back to full time. I mean, how do you ensure that that doesn't sort of sidetrack you off of your ultimate goals? Well, um it I'm an example that it doesn't need to sidetrack you from the longer term goals um and uh you can you can get balanced in there. I think the best piece of advice I got was why am I in such a hurry? I'm one of my mentors saying to me jane your career, you're going to have several careers in your life and your career is going to be measured in decades. So why the sense of Russia and trying to have everything at the same time and just relax, chill um and, you know, take a step back and then enjoy the process more and and enjoy the different phases of your life, and uh that was that was a real help, because I did feel the pressure to be superwoman, and I'm sure there's many people out there who feel the pressure be superwoman or superman, um and, you know, that's not that's not life, that's not the reality. Um So I think uh party advices, give yourself a break, don't say that the expectations at ridiculous levels. Um and, you know, take a bit of time and enjoy, enjoy the different phases and make the most of them. Um and that phase for me of being part time part time working, um but being able to be with the kids when they were very little was very precious. I'm so glad I did it, and I honestly don't think I'd be here today if I hadn't. So, yeah, you usually, as an example, I've got the courage and I have the coming, I mean, I I liked a lot of confidence coming back in. You know, you're you're tired, you're exhausted and, you know, don't be afraid to ask for help from people and and reach out. And I got a lot of support coming back in from friends at work as well, and friends at home. And, uh, again, you don't have to be superwoman. We can we can be normal. So, um, so something has been, uh, has taken on the issue of gender equality, um, perhaps more so than any other bank disclosing a pay gap under some shareholder pressure, but so voluntarily and mike Corbett, your predecessor, as you mentioned, has publicly advocated for the issue. I'm wondering how if at all city methods on gender equality changes, uh, now that you're in this role and you are the new messengers, how if at all are you planning to change sort of what's coming out of the bank and the advocacy that it's um, that is working on? It's clear, it's a great question. It's one we spend, you know, a lot of time on all the time, because it's not just for me as, um, you know, as a leader to be, but I think Mike left a phenomenal legacy. And there were a couple of pieces, we spent quite a lot of time making sure that we were very clear that there is a bonus, the diversity of all forms. Um, it's not, there is no trade off between diversity of meritocracy. Um, and we had quite a few soul searching discussions within the firm um with some folk that didn't believe that. Um But I think it has certainly shown us that you need diversity. You need diverse opinions, you need diverse points of view on things because this world is moving very quickly and you you need that challenge. And the benefits it brings for me. I think the piece that we've certainly learned in the last year is around the racial inequities. Um and that that changed um as a firm, we put a billion dollars. The commitment just over that to trying to drive some different areas in the state around racial inequities. So the huge wealth gap that's their access to credit housing is an issue education. Um and we just published a report that shows that, you know, the economy would be materially larger and the U. S. Would be materially more successful if we hadn't had um the inequities that have been been there. So I think the dialogue and the actions we take will be strengthened around making sure that women of color in particular as well as all of our black colleagues. Um uh you know, we want to eradicate racism um in our bank and we want to make a difference in enabling progress outside and not just nice words but actual actions and putting the power of the bank behind it. We're not alone. There are other banks that are Bank of America and others that have also been really stepping up to the plate here on this. So I think that that would be the difference We need to have, we've learned you need to have radical transparency and those numbers are ugly and you've got to lean into them um and own them and try and drive them forward in transparency does help drive accountability. We do all have scorecards in the bank on it. Um, and then I think it's also, um, they're making sure that we're getting, uh, we're thinking very openly, how do we recruit differently? How do we need to retain people differently? How do we need to evaluate them? One I was found with interesting when we're looking at our trading floor, we realized that we probably had bias and how the how accounts were being an educated to people and that's a big driver of someone's success, their promotion, their compensation. So it's really getting into the water, the root causes of how to make people successful and make sure there is equity there. Long way to go bottom line. We've got a long, long way to go. I was proud of the problems keep going, but long way to go. Well. It all starts in february, at least this, this next chapter of your of your career city. So we're looking forward to, um, to just seeing how it works and, and congratulations on the, on the promotion and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much. I hope I'm one of the first of many.