Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Vikram Pandit: Wine Connoisseur

I tend to post about wine from time to time and about Citigroup and its CEO, Vikram Pandit from time to time, but rarely do I get to post on both at the same time. So this post could be considered a double whammy or whatever it is that they call such things when they happen. In an excerpt from Roger Lowenstein's book The End of Wall Street, Uncle Vik and wine figure together prominently. Here is the excerpt...

"The problem of executive pay did not admit to an easy fix. Well into the crisis period, when banks such as Citigroup (C) were operating on federal investment and when Citi's stock was in single digits, Vikram Pandit, the CEO, was observed with a lunch guest at Le Bernardin, one of the top-rated restaurants in New York. Pandit looked discerningly at the wine list, saw nothing by the glass that appealed, and ordered a $350 bottle so that, as he explained, he could savor "a glass of wine worth drinking." Pandit drank just one glass; his friend had none."

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