Managing Director and Vice Chair of Global M&A
As the most senior manager in Citigroup mergers and acquisitions practice, Christina Mohr subscribes to the belief that what is hidden remains powerful.
Seeing her role as less technical or production focused and more craftsmanlike in nature, she often works behind the scenes to influence deals. She prefers to stay out of the spotlight and “go outside of the four walls,” approaching each deal from the most human perspective possible, where the fairest of outcomes can only be achieved by putting herself in the shoes of her clients.
Mohr, the chairperson of the Fairness Opinion Committee, vets every fairness opinion originating in both Asia and the Americas, ensuring that every M&A transaction is equitable for all.
In addition to leading quality control for the firm, she has been innovating her core practice. In a highly publicized deal, Mohr’s team was the first worldwide to use a SPAC merger to assist a client, Ardagh Group, in carving out a subsidiary from a listed parent company, helping it raise additional capital — $3.4 billion — and achieve a higher valuation.
Mohr was selected by senior management to be a Citi diversity mentor and currently provides career guidance to numerous female bankers.
She says she was “largely self-taught” in how to conduct herself in meetings or negotiations because there were so few women in investment banking as she was coming up through the ranks.
“When I got started in the business, there was no one like me from whom I could learn,” she said. “I focused on speaking up, being persuasive and projecting confidence. I was usually the only woman in the room.”
But an apprentice-based approach is ideal to hone investment banking skills, Mohr said.
“There is no training course that teaches people how to do this job. You must learn from other people that are good at it,” she said.
