Pink Revolution on Wall Street.
Jane Fraser takes over the reins of Citigroup and becomes the first woman named to head a major American bank, indicating how #MeToo eventually infected even finance, previously a men's club.
A Citigroup veteran, which she joined in 2004, Fraser takes over from Michael Corbat, who has been at the helm of the bank for eight years.
The announcement came as a surprise: no one expected that Corbat could leave so tightly around.
Everything seemed to indicate that he would stay for at least another two years.
Instead he leaves in February 2021, delivering a converted Citigroup to Fraser.
Corbat inherited the bank's reins shortly after the financial crisis and under his leadership Citigroup's profits more than doubled, from $ 7 billion in 2012 to $ 20 billion in 2019. Although down 36% this year. , Citigroup shares have risen 38% since taking office.
"We believe" Fraser "is the right person to push Citi to the next level," said John Dugan, Citigroup's chairman of the board.
The rise of the manager, 53, married with two children and ex McKinsey, breaks one of Corporate America's most enduring glass ceilings, that of Wall Street.
Fraser thus joins that small circle of female CEOs: there are only 31 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500. The turning point follows the 'embarrassment' of top managers of American banks during one of their last hearings in Congress.
To the deputies who asked him to raise his hand last year if they thought their place would be taken by a woman or an African American, the seven CEOs replied spades.
No one had raised their hand, drawing - in the midst of the fury of #MeToo - an avalanche of criticism.
One year later, Fraser's turning point rekindles attention to succession plans on Wall Street, where at the moment two women, Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak, would be in pole position to replace Jamie Dimon at the helm of JPMorgan.