Citigroup vice-chairman Raymond McGuire, a political moderate, is considering running for the mayor of New York. While he has not yet announced his intention, he has revealed he hasn’t ruled out a bid, CNBC reported.
Many in the NYC business community are encouraging the longtime Citigroup executive to run in the 2021 election as Bill de Blasio’s second term comes to its end.
McGuire is the Vice Chairman of Citigroup and Chairman of Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory.
“Mr. McGuire is solely focused on his role at Citi; talk about him considering a run for mayor of New York City is pure speculation,” Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a spokeswoman for Citi, told CNBC.
De Blasio, whose term ends in January 2022, said he has “no interest” in a third term as mayor, CNBC reported.
McGuire is well known in the business world. He has also worked at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, after starting his career at New York-based First Boston Corp. McGuire is credited with being a lead advisor on numerous deals that are estimated to be worth over $600 billion combined.
McGuire is 63 years old and may well be the longest-serving, and most senior, Black investment banker on Wall Street, Vanity Fair reported.
McGuire was raised by a single mother in Dayton, Ohio, and received a full academic scholarship to attend tony boarding school Hotchkiss. After attending Harvard College, he earned a JD and MBA from Harvard’s law and business schools, The New York Post reported.
McGuire has also spoken out on social and political issues. A New York magazine, City & State, listed McGuire as the 63rd most powerful Black leader in the city. And, De Blasio reappointed McGuire in 2015 to the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, whose focus is “affordable housing and workspaces so that NYC can remain a viable home for emerging artists.”
He was one of 27 Black leaders who condemned a mob that poured water on New York police officers last year.
“As African-American leaders who are proud to call New York City home and/or where we work, we were appalled at the recent verbal attacks on and water dousing of police officers in Harlem and Brooklyn who appeared to be lawfully executing their responsibilities to keep our communities safe and orderly,” they said in a letter to the editor of The New York Times.
McGuire also has been a heavy Democratic donor, including being a key financier for several running for president. He was a member of Sen. Kamala Harris’ finance committee and recently participated in a meeting featuring former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign chairman, along with other Wall Street leaders.
Regarding concerns about workplace diversity, McGuire warned companies to stop simply “checking the box” on diversity initiatives without making sure those efforts produced real change, Yahoo reported.
“Certainly it checks the box but is anything there material? No,” McGuire said during a virtual Economic Club of New York meeting. “It’s a feel-good check-the-box. But it’s certainly not advancing any of this.”
As far as his own company, Citigroup reached out to more-diverse firms for its own corporate issuance. In fact, the bank hired women-owned firms as lead managers for its $4 billion bond issuance.
McGuire told Vanity Fair he supports the Black Lives Matter protesters and the efforts to address systemic racism in the country.
“This is all about race,” McGuire told the magazine. “Let me be bright, clear, and unequivocal. I am really proud to be one of the only members, the sole, S-O-L-E and then the S-O-U-L member of the 4H Club, that is Hotchkiss and three Harvards. If I go into a major department store, I’m one of three things: I’m security. I’m men’s room. I’m men’s suits. And that’s if I’m dressed up. If I walk in any neighborhood, including my own, they have no idea that which I do for a living. They see a 6’4”, 200-pound Black man, and I can easily be George Floyd. I can easily be George Floyd. So people fail to recognize that because I’ve been given an opportunity, and because I have been from the bricks to the boardroom, from the bottom up. As the great philosopher of the 21st century, Biggie, says, ‘If you don’t know, now you know’.”
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
He reciting lyrics by the rapper, “…We used to fuss when the landlord dissed us / No heat, wonder why Christmas missed us / Birthdays was the worst days.‘“
McGuire continued, “That is every Black person out there. We celebrate those who had the opportunity, and we hope for those who have not had the opportunity. I could easily be George Floyd or Ahmaud Arbery, and the list goes on and on, Trayvon Martin. I could be Emmett Till. Just because I have those degrees and I have benefitted from all of the great education, greatest institutions that exist on the planet, I’m still Black.”
