Opinion piece worth reading about how eager Jane Fraser is to criticize politics in the UK while remaining unwilling to utter a negative word about her friend Donald Trump. It’s one of many instances where Fraser appears to want it both ways: she wants to be seen as tough, but not ruthless; she wants to be judged on her performance rather than her gender, yet avoid the scrutiny that comes with being the first woman to lead a major Wall Street bank.
She is also walking a political tightrope. Citi needs the Trump administration’s collusion to exit its longstanding consent order, giving the bank every incentive to maintain a cordial relationship. At the same time, by creating some distance in interviews like this, Fraser is clearly positioning herself for the possibility of a shift in public sentiment should the GOP get wiped out in the midterms, something she likely didn’t consider a real-possibility when she got into bed with Trump’s family, per reports by a whistleblower.
That said, I have limited sympathy. Leading one of the world’s largest banks comes with difficult tradeoffs, and Fraser is compensated accordingly. On a Managing Director call she famously said there are “easier places to work,” which means what? That the culture is terrible? Regardless, leadership means owning the culture that exists under your watch and the people you choose to put in positions of authority. If you’re asking employees to navigate one of the toughest workplaces on Wall Street, accountability has to run all the way to the top.
Here’s a quote by the author of this article:
““My job’s to run the company, my job isn’t to go and tell politicians what to do. I’m not very qualified to do that.”
Just earlier she had warned Britain of the dangers of high tax rates, sluggish growth, high spending and disincentivizing people to work – warnings that should be heeded from one of the country’s most successful corporate exports. But Fraser’s reluctance to wade into the slightest criticism of Trump reveals the tightrope that even America’s most powerful executives have to walk.
That toughness, it seems, only extends so far.”