1963

RJR Nabisco surprised many, except perhaps those who have followed his accomplishments, when they announced that Lou Gerstner will become chairman, chief executive, and president of the huge package goods conglomerate. One financial analyst hailed the appointment, saying RJR Nabisco needed a leader and a "capable person to decide where the company is going"

Lou's achievements as president of American Express were so significant that some experts wondered if that company would be able to hold its momentum.

Lou told The New York Times he had accepted the job because he wanted to play a leading role in reshaping the conglomerate created in a leveraged buyout during the winter by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company. "You have to understand that this was the 19th largest company in 1987, yet it's gone through a period of great uncertainty and I'd like to be part of the management team," said Lou.

According to The Times, Lou met a few months ago at his home in Connecticut with Henry Kravis. A short while later, Kravis phoned Lou during the latter's ski trip in Vail, Colo., but they couldn't talk because of a bad connection. So he skied down the mountain and, 30 minutes later, received the offer by phone in his condominium. Lou will have to replace many senior managers who left last year and sell some assets to cut debt.

Lou's move leaves the class's leadership in the financial services industry to RickBraddock, head of the consumer bank at Citicorp, Launny Steffens, president of the investment division of Merrill Lynch, and Steve Frank, new CFO of TRW.

Rick Braddock was photographed and interviewed with John S. Reed, chairman of Citicorp, in a recent Times profile. Citi will be the world's first truly global financial institution, said Reed, whose managers will be as likely to hold degrees from the University of Turin or Sao Paulo as they will from Dartmouth or Wellesley College. Having built the consumer bank division into Citi's star unit, whose credit-card business and New York branch system are the industry envy, Rick has turned his attention to converting its savings and loan acquisitions into banks with full-service products and systems, according to The Times. "We've underrated the difficulty in doing that," Rick said.

Frank Wohl, recently named administrator of New York's Fulton Fish Market, said a new court ruling against the government "would not have any impact" on his mission to rid the market of illegal activities. The ruling rejected the government's effort to take control of the major union at the market, holding that the government lawyers had not proved that the two top leaders of the union local were controlled by the Genovese crime family. Frank's law firm, Lankier, Siffert & Wohl, also represents New York State Comptroller Edward V. Regan, who is fighting investigation of his campaign financing practices by the State Commission on Government Integrity and by Federal and state prosecutors.

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