Smokejumper

When Michael O’Neill was recruited to join Citigroup’s board of directors in 2009, and three years later become its chairman, a post he retired from earlier this year, he seemed like an unlikely choice. This was the biggest stage in banking. Citigroup had entered the financial crisis as the largest bank in America. Its operations were mind-numbingly complex. And its exposure to subprime mortgages and securities had, one year earlier, produced a $53 billion pre-tax loss, and led to a government bailout and restructuring of monumental proportions. Even after the Department of the U.S. Treasury injected $45 billion into the…