Jones, Thomas W. 1949–

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Thomas W. Jones 1949–

Corporate executive

In 1969 Thomas Jones, then a 20-year old senior at Cornell University, led a student takeover of a campus building in a racially-fuelled protest. Thirty years later, as chief executive officer (CEO) of Global Investment Management for Citigroup, Jones led a staff of 60,000, managing assets totaling nearly half a trillion dollars. The man who once demanded respect with a rifle and harsh rhetoric, now commanded respect as one of the most powerful African Americans on Wall Street—make that one of the most powerful people on Wall Street period. When questioned about this transformation, he told Forbes, “You’re a prisoner of history if you have anger and resentment. At a certain point I believed the country was making a commitment to live up to the highest ideals expressed in the Constitution. My feeling was the country wanted to move beyond racism. I wanted to see how far I could go.”

Brandished Rifle as Reluctant Radical

Thomas Wade Jones was born in 1949 and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1965 he enrolled at prestigious Cornell University, during a time when university president James A. Perkins was actively working to increase minority enrollment. Jones was a charismatic student and a natural leader and he was elected freshman class president. He was also a member of the student judicial board.

During Jones’ time at Cornell, social unrest was brewing across the country. The civil rights movement had given way to Black Power and militancy. Protests against the Vietnam War were rampant. On college campuses integration was fitfully finding its place. Cornell was no exception and Jones soon became involved in the struggle over race relations on campus. He became the spokesperson for a group of students “protesting the lack of Black studies programs and what they saw as the university’s treatment of them as second-class citizens,” noted Jet. The protest put Jones and his group in direct opposition to Perkins and his administration.

Campus tension came to a head on April 19, 1969, when the students, led by Jones, took over Willard Straight Hall. According to the Cornell University website, “Though [Jones was] personally conflicted about the decision to occupy the student union, he believed in the importance of solidarity and became the spokesman for the takeover group.” He didn’t seem very conflicted on the cover of that week’s Newsweek which showed him with one fist in the air, a rifle in the other. According to Forbes, Newsweek’s accompanying article quoted Jones as saying, “In the past it has been the black people who have done all the dying. Now the time has come when the pigs are going to die, too. We are moving tonight. Cornell has until 9 o’clock to live.” Regardless of the rhetoric, the takeover ended peacefully 34 hours after it had begun. Two days later Jones addressed an audience of thousands summing up the results of the takeover. A month later Perkins was forced to resign. Jones graduated not long after with a bachelor’s degree in government and continued on at Cornell to earn a master’s in regional planning in

At a Glance …

Born in 1949, in Philadelphia, PA; married second wife Adelaide Knox, 1975; children: (from first marriage) Nigel, (from second marriage) Evonne, Michael, Victoria. Education: Cornell University, BA, government, 1969, MS, regional planning, 1972; Bos ton University, MBA, mid-198Gs; certified public accountant

Career: Arthur Young and Company, principal, 1978–82; John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, senior vice president and treasurer, 1982–89; TIAA-CREF, CFO, executive vice president of finance and planning, 1989–93, president and COO, 1993–97, vice chairman and director, 1995–97; Travelers Croup, vice chairman and director, 1997–98; Salomon Smith Barney Asset Management, chairman and CEO, 1998; Citigroup, Global Investment Management and Citigroup Asset Management, chairman and CEO, 1999–.

Selected memberships: Board of directors, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac}; board of directors, Philip Morris; board of directors, Fox Entertainment Croup; trustee, Cornell University; board of overseers, Cornell Medical College.

Awards: Ranked fifth, “Most Powerful Black Executives,” Fortune, 2002; named one of “Top Fifty Blacks in Corporate America,” Black Enterprise Magazine; honorary doctorate, Howard University; honorary doctorate, Pepperdine University; honorary doctorate, College of New Rochelle.

Addresses: Office— Citigroup, 399 Park Ave., New York, NY, 10043.

1972. During his graduate years at the university Jones was very involved in the efforts to establish the Africana Studies and Research Center and was instrumental in hiring the center’s first director, James E. Turner.

Embarked Upon the Financial Frontier

Jones recalled to the Financial Times that at the time of his graduation he realized, “One of the new frontiers for African-Americans would be business. Clearly if America was going to be a more open society, then one of the testing grounds would have to be where the dollar was made—where significant wealth and resources were at stake.” Jones wasted no time in moving into this realm. He began his professional life in Boston with accounting mega-firm Arthur Young and Company in 1973. Five years later he was made a principal with the company. During this time he earned an MBA from Boston University and became a certified public accountant. He next moved to another Boston-based company, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance, becoming a senior vice president and treasurer in 1987. After two years he was recruited by the New York-based Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities, more commonly known as TIAA-CREF. As executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO), Jones was a key player in the $276 billion retirement fund for teachers and administrators. In 1993 he was promoted to president and chief operating officer (COO). In 1995 he rose up the ranks again becoming a vice chairman and director.

After eight successful years with the pension fund, Jones made the switch to Travelers Group in 1997, becoming the highest ranking African American at the insurance giant. At the time, the Salomon Smith Barney financial firm was part of Travelers and Jones took on dual roles as vice chairman of the Travelers Group and chairman and CEO of Salomon Smith Barney Asset Management. Of the move from TIAA-CREF to Travelers which had about $120 billion in assets at the time, Jones told the Wall Street Journal that he was excited about the opportunity to perform on a bigger stage with global competition. He said it was not unlike “getting to play in the Superbowl.”

A year after joining the company, Travelers Group merged with Citicorp to create Citigroup, one of the world’s largest financial services providers. In August of 1999 Jones was appointed chairman and CEO of Global Investment Banking, often referred to as the wealth management division. Under his reign fell Citigroup Asset Management, Citigroup Alternative Investments, Citigroup Private Bank, and Travelers Life and Annuity. Concurrently he was made chairman and CEO of Citigroup Asset Management (also known as SSB Citi) which includes the Salomon Smith Barney group. According to a 2002 Forbes article, in this new role Jones assumed some $677 billion in assets. Jones also inherited nearly 60,000 employees including 12,900 stockbrokers, 25,000 insurance salesmen and 530 private bankers selling an array of financial products under six autonomous companies. His first major challenge was consolidating the different companies together into one global financial management firm. He also had to clarify the different products that each company sold. “Confusion is not a good thing,” Jones told Forbes.

Scored Success at Citigroup

Uniting the various groups of Citigroup would not be easy as each unit had traditionally been rivals. Jones told Forbes, “there was a huge potential if we could get the leaders of each division and each geographic area to cooperate.” Citigroup’s corporate goal became the cross-sell—having each part of the organization coordinate efforts to promote Citigroup products. Through countless meetings, negotiations, and millions of miles criss-crossing the globe, Jones was able to get most divisions of Citigroup to cross-sell by the end of 2001. According to Forbes, “Getting everyone to work together yielded broader distribution for various products. It also let the firm create entirely new investment wares by melding elements of different divisions—a Travelers insurance policy with a Smith Barney mutual fund tagged to it—and pushing them out to the market fast and wide.” Jones also merged the various mutual funds into just three major brands: Salomon Brothers, Smith Barney, and Citifunds (overseas).

Jones’ efforts paid off. “In a bear market year, when many fund groups lost assets, Jones took in $65 billion in new money,” wrote Forbes. “In five years his forces have increased the managed-account business to $67 billion, the largest sum in the industry.” In 2001 his division earned $1.5 billion after taxes—11% of Citigroup’s overall earnings. Of that success Jones told The Financial Times, “We convinced each of the tribes that they would be better off becoming part of the new tribe called Citigroup because it’s a greater vision, it’s a greater story, and they would be part of something grander.”

Jones’ success at Citigroup resulted in his name being mentioned as a possible successor to Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill upon his retirement. Though Jones would face tough competition from Weill’s number two, Robert Willumstad, Weill has publicly praised Jones’ accomplishments and told Forbes, “The race to succeed me is wide open, and the board will consider all contenders.” Jones’ accomplishments also drew the attention of Fortune magazine’s editors who placed him at number five on their list of the country’s 50 “Most Powerful Black Executives.” Three universities including prestigious Howard University have awarded him honorary doctorates. He has also personally reaped the benefits of his success at Citigroup, achieving incredible wealth. As of June 2003 he held nearly $23 million in stock with Citigroup and another $1 million with various other corporations. This allowed him to provide a comfortable life for his wife, Adelaide, and their children, Evonne, Michael, and Victoria, in the posh community of New Canaan, Connecticut. Meanwhile his son, Nigel, from a previous marriage was following in his father’s steps, becoming a star at prestigious financial firm Goldman Sachs and Company.

Jones has carved a privileged life for himself and has not been averse to sharing the wealth. He has donated time and money to Harlem-based “Courage to Succeed” which teaches computer skills to disadvantaged children and has established scholarship funds for students. However, his most notable charitable act brought him full circle to reconcile with his past. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cornell takeover, Jones returned to his alma mater and established an annual endowment to honor interracial understanding and harmony on campus and beyond. In a surprising turn of events he named the prize after Perkins, his 1969 adversary. “I simply feel the need to acknowledge that he was an extremely decent man who had the courage to do the right thing in trying to help America solve its racial problems by improving educational access for minorities,” Jones told Jet. He added, “It’s an attempt to come to closure with a chapter in the university’s history, a chapter in my life.” Jones also hoped the $5,000 annual prize would help open another chapter, if not a new book altogether. “Today’s fight is to build a society that respects and celebrates diversity. But it should be a society that also affirms a greater sense of community, transcends our diversity, and unites us as one people despite our various colors and cultures and creeds,” he said at the inauguration ceremony for the prize according to www.dos.cornell.edu. He concluded saying, “Let’s put more energy into building linkages that unite us than we expend on differences that divide us.” As a former protester turned financial powerhouse, Jones is proof that this philosophy works.

Sources

Periodicals

Financial Times, June 16, 2003, p. 26.

Forbes, May 27, 2002, p. 66.

Jet, May 22, 1995, p. 59.

Pensions & Investments, October 15, 2001, p. 16.

Wall Street Journal, August 15, 1997.

On-line

“Commencement 2003, Citations, Thomas W. Jones,” Howard University, www.howard.edu/commencement2003/citations.htm (July 8, 2003).

“James A. Perkins,” Cornell University, http://trustees.cornell.edu/search/ten_perkins.htm (July 8, 2003).

“Jones: Consumers will benefit from financial services consolidation trend,” Cornell Chronicle, www.news.Cornell.edu/Chronicle/99/4.15.99/PerkinsPrize.html (July 8, 2003).

“Most Powerful Black Executives,” Fortune, www.fortune.com/fortune/blackpower/snapshot/0,15307,13,00.html (June 3, 2003).

“Thomas W. Jones,” Citigroup, www.citigroup.com/citigroup/corporategovernance/bio/jones.htm (July 8, 2003).

“Thomas W. Jones,” Cornell University, www.dos.Cornell.edu/dos/DOS/Perkins/tomjones.html (July 8, 2003).

—Candace LaBalle

Contemporary Black Biography