Citi hires former Sherman & Sterling partner as General Counsel
Global financial conglomerate Citi has appointed Rohan Weerasinghe as its general counsel and corporate secretary based in New York.
He takes over from Michael Helfer who has been appointed vice chairman after almost a decade as general counsel.
Weerasinghe was previously a senior partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP, where he advised and represented financial institutions and corporations on corporate governance, complex transactions, IPOs and debt issues.
In his new role, he will be directly reported to by Citi’s business unit general counsels, regional general counsels and corporate deputy general counsels.
Citi’s chief executive officer, Vikram Pandit, says that he has “tremendous confidence” in Weerasinghe’s ability due to his private practice background in spearheading relationships with multi-national corporations around the world.
“Rohan has a great track record as an attorney. I look forward to him bringing his expertise and insights to Citi,” he continues.
Commenting on his move, Weerasinghe said: “I am excited to have the opportunity to go from one leading global organisation to another. Having spent 35 years advising companies on their most critical legal issues, I am looking forward to this new professional challenge – leading Citi’s world-class legal organization as it continues to provide important guidance to the company.”
With approximately 200 million customer accounts and business transactions in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions, Citi provides its customers with a broad range of financial products and services, including corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services and wealth management.