Kerry White's banking career began in 2012 on the trading floor at Citigroup. A native of Northern New Jersey, White had recently graduated from Harvard University and said she found herself "enamored with the concept of seeing the world unfold" from the perspective of the trading floor.
She was also drawn to the idea of building an international career, and Citi — one of the world's largest banks with on-the-ground operations in 95 countries — could provide that opportunity.
Twelve years later, her experiences at Citi have been wide-ranging. She spent four years immersed in sales and trading. She has traveled to 21 countries through her work at Citi. And she spent four years as the chief of staff to now-CEO Jane Fraser, during the time that Fraser was head of Citi's Latin America region and, later, leading its global consumer banking unit.
"My job was to help her execute her priorities," White said. "So I spent that time really absorbing as much as possible about our business and helping her triage through different things. It was a lot of fun."
Since early 2020, White has worked in wealth, one of Citi's five core businesses. White currently oversees the investment management arm of wealth. She leads portfolio managers who build investment portfolios for each of Citi's wealth segments — Citi Private Bank, Wealth at Work and Citigold — serving the gamut from ultra high net worth clients to affluent clients.
As a managing director within Citi Investment Management, a division that sits within wealth, White is playing an integral part in reshaping that line of business, which has struggled with lower profits and higher costs compared to Citi's higher-performing businesses. Wealth is currently in the midst of a turnaround led by Andy Sieg, who rejoined Citi in September 2023 as global head of wealth after serving as president of Bank of America Merrill Wealth Management.
White recently led a large restructuring of the segment's multi-asset class portfolio offering and she also directed the transformation of the portfolio management group, which involved unifying global teams and leading a technology program to allow for scalable portfolio management.
"Andy has really challenged us to think big and do the strategy work and get the culture right through execution," White said. "It's challenged us to look through the status quo … and the license to challenge [that] has been really energizing."
White is currently vice chair of the Citi Wealth Global Investment Committee, where she influences portfolio decisions for Citi's assets under management and advisement.
Last year, she joined the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan U.S. think tank whose membership focuses on U.S. foreign policy and international affairs.
White is a mom to a toddler and expecting her second child in the fall. When it comes to transitioning into parenthood while working full time, she said she draws inspiration from her own mother, who had a career in corporate America as a human resources professional.
"The backdrop was not nearly as supportive as I have it today," said White. She said Citi's policies, including its recently expanded parental leave, is helpful. Announced in June, the updated policy for Citi's U.S. and Puerto Rico employees provides all new parents with 16 weeks of paid leave and all birth parents with an additional eight weeks of paid time off for recovery.
"So if she could do it and be successful, then certainly I can too."
