Saluting Those Who Serve

On November 6, Veterans on Wall Street, a consortium of large financial institutions including Citi, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs, was the presenting sponsor of the Stand up for Heroes concert in New York City to benefit the Bob Woodruff Foundation. It was an extraordinary evening of music and laughter, that was made even more meaningful thanks to the generosity of our clients, vendors and colleagues who helped us raise critical funds to support our injured men and women in uniform as they return home.

Tomorrow, Veterans on Wall Street will host our third annual career conference, convening veteran job-seekers, charitable organizations and HR professionals from over 150 companies, to share best practices around veteran employment issues. Veterans on Wall Street is aligned with the broader Citi Salutes initiative, created to bridge and expand upon existing company efforts aimed at serving veteran consumers and recruiting veterans for careers at the company and the financial services industry.

The Citi Salutes initiative has come a long way in the past few years, from ad-hoc activities across the enterprise to a united, company-wide effort. It has been, by far, one of the most incredibly rewarding experiences of my career. What began as an initiative with limited personnel and resources has grown to one of our company's most widely-supported programs, led by a dedicated team within Citi Community Development, and driven by a team of volunteers representative of every business function, every region and every product within Citi.

While we are proud of our efforts to raise money for those in need (totaling nearly $4 million raised to-date), the Citi Salutes program is in fact much broader. Citi has developed a comprehensive effort across four key areas: recruitment and training, partnerships with leading veterans service and community organizations, development and delivery of products tailored to this unique audience, and leadership across the financial services industry.

I am honored to be a part of Citi Salutes, and so proud of this company and its employees for their ongoing commitment to the cause. On this very special day, I'd like to thank all of our veteran and military servicemembers, families and spouses, both here at Citi and around the world, for the incredible sacrifices they have made - and I extend that thank you to the hundreds of employees helping make Citi Salutes a reality every single day.