VICTOR MENEZES: Ready for the final dash

So far he's successfully crossed every hurdle Citigroup's cut-throat competitive culture has thrown at him. Now, Victor Menezes will make the final dash. And already his fan club-which includes some Wall Street analysts-is betting that the India-born Chairman and CEO of Citibank NA (Emerging Markets) will succeed Citigroup's legendary head honcho Sanford "Sandy" Weill. Indeed, the recent shuffling of top brass at the group has given Menezes some valuable edge by giving him additional charge of relationship with key customers and regulators, besides making him the head of acquisition and recruitment outside the US.

For some time now, the 53-year-old Menezes has come to epitomise the success of Indian management talent globally. But within Citi, he had always been a star. Son of an Indian Railway's ex-chairman and an IIT-Bombay electrical engineer, Menezes was only 23 when he joined Citicorp's banking finance division. But barely five years later he was put in charge of Citi's India operations, although it was clear even then that his purview would extend beyond India to Asia. Many people believe that if today Citi is successful in Asia (the region fetched 16 per cent of the bank's income last year), it's because of talented managers like Menezes.

Thereon, it was a quick rise to the top for Menezes. After stints in Hong Kong and China, he became the senior corporate officer for Latin America and Africa in 1985. Four years later he moved to Brussels to head the consumer business in Europe, and in 1987 he was given additional charge of the consumer banking business in the US. By 1995, Menezes had become the Chief Financial Officer of Citicorp and Citibank, with responsibilities for finance, capital, balance sheet management, M&A, and shareholders and regulatory relationships. After Sandy Weill, then the head of Travellers Group, pulled off his stunning bid for Citicorp in 1998, Menezes played a key role in integration of the two businesses.

The dice for the top job could fall any which way. But for most Indian managers, Menezes-who still keeps a photo of the Kolkata Citi branch he once headed on his table in the New York office-is already a hero.

A Star for Sony

SUNIL LULLA: The makeover man

He must be hoping like hell for his old magic to work again. After a not-so-successful three-year stint outside television, first at Pradeep Kar-promoted-and-Rupert-Murdoch-bought Indya.com, and a consultancy (nondescript Valuebridge), 35-year-old Sunil Lulla is set to return to his first love: television. His June-end beginning job as General Manager of Sony Entertainment Television (set) will involve courting an audience completely different from the teeny-bopper crowd he catered to at MTV, which he turned around by Indianising. Although Lulla refused to comment, BT learns that the man may be asked to put his turnaround skills (he was also instrumental in burnishing HMV's image) to use at set, which faces turbulence at the top. There are bets out that Lulla may actually end up in the corner room at set not too far into the future. Any takers?

DR T. RAJGOPAL: Doing Unilever proud

Carry On, Doctor

This is one event the amateur palmist didn't see coming. In May, Hindustan Lever Ltd's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Thirumalai Rajgopal, was bestowed with the highest recognition in his field-an Honourary Fellowship to The Faculty of Occupational Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians, London. Nominations and selection for the Fellowship are secretive and Rajgopal was duly surprised when he got the news, "especially since I am only the third Indian and the only practising physician to receive this fellowship," the man exclaims. Apart from an MBBS, Rajgopal has three postgraduate degrees-two of them from Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Baroda, where he grew up. He has been with HLL for the last 14 years. But how did he get zeroed in on? Rajgopal attributes it to the fact that he also heads the Occupational Health for Asia Business Group, Unilever, and is on the Occupational Health Committee of Unilever world wide. "That's probably why they were interested," surmises Rajgopal. Apart from palmistry, the doctor follows cricket and football in his spare time. Right now, he's waiting for Brazil to lift the World Cup. We don't know about Brazil, but his stars are shining bright.