Tearing Down the Walls: How Sandy Weill Fought His Way to the Top of the Financial World. . .and Then Nearly Lost It AllHe is one of the world's most accomplished figures of modern finance. As chairman and chief executive officer of Citigroup, Sanford "Sandy" Weill has become an American legend, a banking visionary whose innovativeness, opportunism, and even fear drove him from the lowliest jobs on Wall Street to its most commanding heights. In this unprecedented biography, acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley provides a compelling account of Weill's rise to power. What emerges is a portrait of a man who is as vital and as volatile as the market itself. Tearing Down the Walls tells the riveting inside story of how a Jewish boy from Brooklyn's back alleys overcame incredible odds and deep-seated prejudices to transform the financial-services industry as we know it today. Using nearly five hundred firsthand interviews with key players in Weill's life and career -- including Weill himself -- Langley brilliantly chronicles not only his success and scandals but also the shadows of his hidden self: his father's abandonment and his loving marriage; his tyrannical rages as well as his tearful regrets; his fierce sense of loyalty and his ruthless elimination of potential rivals. By highlighting in new and startling detail one man's life in a narrative as richly textured and compelling as a novel, Tearing Down the Walls provides the historical context of the dramatic changes not only in business but also in American society in the last half century. |
Contents
PROLOGUE | 1 |
CRASHING THE GATES | 7 |
CORNED BEEF WITH LETTUCE | 33 |
INTO THE WASP NEST | 61 |
EXILE ON PARK AVENUE | 90 |
RIP VAN WINKLE INC | 106 |
BACKWATER MOGUL | 125 |
BRANCHING OUT | 145 |
THE RED UMBRELLA | 222 |
CHOICES | 245 |
THE MOTHER OF ALL DEALS | 272 |
THE HYDRAHEADED MONSTER | 295 |
STALEMATE | 324 |
SHOWDOWN | 349 |
SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION | 364 |
BLINDSIDED | 380 |
FAST JETS GOLDEN PARACHUTES | 160 |
A SPLENDID BALANCE | 175 |
HOMECOMING | 197 |
TAKING COMMAND | 398 |
DOWNSHIFTING | 425 |
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American Express analysts Arthur bank Berlind & Weill Bob Lipp boss brokerage brokers called Calvano Carnegie Hall Carter CBWL-Hayden chairman chief executive Chuck Prince Citi Citibank Citicorp Citigroup clients co-CEOs Cogan Cohen colleagues Commercial Credit company's corporate deal dinner directors employees financial-services firm's friends funds going Greenhill Grubman Hayden Stone huge investment banker investors J.P. Morgan Jamie Dimon Jessica John Reed Levitt Loeb looked lunch Magner managers Maughan meeting merger million morning operations partners percent person Pike president Primerica profits Reed's Robinson Roger Berlind Rubin Salomon Smith Barney Sandy and Dimon Sandy and Joan Sandy and Reed Sandy asked Sandy told Sandy wanted Sandy Weill Sandy's sell share shareholders Shearson Sheinberg Spitzer talk thought told Sandy took Travelers Tsai Wall Street Willumstad York Zankel Zarb