heterogeneous consumer economy."^{[9][14][15][16]}

Professional career[edit]

Early career and Morgan Stanley (1983–2005)[edit]

During his early professional years, he taught economics at Columbia, then had a stint as a professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada.^{[citation needed]}

He joined Morgan Stanley as an associate in 1983, one of the first Indians to join the company.^[1][9][17] In 1990, Vikram Pandit was chosen as the managing director and head of the US Equity Syndicate unit of Morgan Stanley and by 1994, he had risen to become managing director (MD) and head of its worldwide Institutional securities division.

He was instrumental in building Morgan Stanley's electronic trading and prime brokerage division and in 2000, ultimately rose to the post of president and chief operating officer (COO) of its worldwide operations of the Institutional securities and Investment banking businesses.^[3]

In 2005, after more than two decades with Morgan Stanley, Vikram Pandit decided to leave the firm along with John Havens after being passed over by Philip J. Purcell.^[18][19]

Post Morgan Stanley and joining Citigroup (2006 – 2012)[edit]

In March 2006, Pandit and John Havens, along with Guru Ramakrishnan (former global head of trading, technology and new products in the equities group at Morgan Stanley), started the hedge fund Old Lane LLC.^[20] Citi bought the company in 2007 for $800 million, bringing both Pandit and Havens into Citi leadership.^[21] Citi named Pandit chairman and CEO of Citi Alternative Investments (CAI) unit and he later led Citi's Institutional Clients Group.

On 11 December 2007, Pandit was named the new CEO of Citigroup, replacing interim-CEO Sir Winfried Bischoff. Pandit was strongly supported by then interim chairman of Citigroup Robert Rubin,^[22] the effective successor to Chuck Prince. Prince had resigned as chairman and CEO of Citigroup in November 2007, due to unexpectedly poor third-quarter performance, mainly due to CDO- and MBS-related losses.

On 11 February 2009, Pandit testified to Congress that he had declared to his board of directors, "My salary should be $1 per year with no bonus until we return to profitability."^[23][24][25] He also struck an apologetic tone for letting the bank consider completing the purchase of a private jet plane after receiving some $45 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.^[26] His total 2009 compensation was $128,751, with a base salary of $125,001 and other compensation of $3,750.^[27]

In January 2011, after working for two years for a salary of $1 a year, his annual base was raised to $1.75 million for the progress Citi made under Vikram’s leadership.^[27][28][29] After posting five consecutive quarterly profits, Citigroup in May 2011, announced $23.2m retention award to Pandit making him one of the highest paid CEOs.^[30][31] In April 2012, shareholders voted against increasing his pay to $15 million. About 55% of the votes cast were against the compensation package.^[32]