Global Co-Head Consumer Products, Corporate and Investment Banking, Citigroup
Last year, Elinor Hoover became board chair of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the first woman to hold the post since the society’s founder Alice Tully half a century ago.
Hoover, a classical music enthusiast who co-heads investment banking for consumer products at Citigroup, sees a parallel between the focus she and her team bring to their business and achievement at the highest levels of classical music.
“We put the client at the center of every decision and solution, which inspires us to work tirelessly to achieve the best for them,” said Hoover, who trained as a pianist at Julliard during her teenage years.
“At the heart of classical music,” she said, “is also a striving for excellence in how musicians practice every day to achieve virtuosity and in how they perform to reach and inspire audiences.”
For Hoover, putting clients front and center involves creating a climate that supports their growth. In September she was to lead Citi’s third annual Consumer Disruptive Growth Conference, which brings founders of the latest generation of companies that are disrupting the food, beverage and personal care industries together with executives from the largest companies in their categories as well as institutional investors.
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“Traditional companies are challenged with this disruption and have begun to acquire these emerging growth companies at a rapid pace as a means to incubate the technology alongside their heritage products,” said Hoover, who rose to her current post in 2015 after joining Citi four years earlier from Morgan Stanley. Since then, she has helped lead Citi to a top-four share of consumer product investment banking revenue globally.
Hoover credits her 76-member team’s success to a cohesion that comes from a single-mindedness in serving clients and “constantly celebrating the successes as a team,” she said.
It also helps that Hoover has a fondness for more than music. “Mom, you’ll be good at consumer, you’re a good consumer,” her son told her four years ago after hearing Hoover deliberate about the job opportunity.
“It’s an important work-life truth,” she said. “You enjoy your professional role most when its ethos aligns with your own interests, and you enjoy your company most when its culture resonates with your values.”
