New York: Donning the role of a commander ill-equipped to save the Titanic of banking world, Citigroup’s India-born chief Vikram Pandit has found a place among the 20 worst ever CEOs in the American history, but the top honours has gone to bankrupt Lehman Brothers’ Dick Fuld.
The list of America’s 20 worst ever CEOs, compiled by business magazine Conde Nast Portfolio after consulting with a panel of business school professors, identifies the business “leaders who helped drive their companies into the ground.”
These 20 include “six men who helped make today’s economy stink”, the magazine said.
The list has been topped by Dick Fuld, under whose stewardship Lehman Brothers became the world’s biggest ever bankruptcy candidate and marked the epitome of the current global economic crisis.
Pandit has been ranked last at 20th position in the list, which also includes troubled insurer AIG’s Martin Sullivan and failed investment bank Merrill Lynch’s Stan O’Neal as also computer giant HP’s former chief Carly Fiorina, Enron’s former chief Ken Lay and bankrupt telecom firm WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers.
About Pandit, the magazine said that he “did not create the mess Citi is in, but he is the financial services equivalent of the Titanic’s Edward Smith - a commander ill-equipped to save his ship.”