Citi Taps Amex's Linville to Run Cards

Citigroup ($1.9 trillion in assets) hired Jud Linville as chief executive officer of Citi Cards. Linville joins New York-based Citi from American Express, where he was president and CEO of U.S. Consumer Services. Linville will run Citi's North America branded card business and will work closely with the bank's regional cards heads to facilitate growth and innovation. Linville, who will report to Manuel Medina-Mora, Citi's CEO of consumer banking for the Americas, also will serve as a member of the bank's executive committee and global consumer banking council, chaired by Medina-Mora, and will head the global cards council.

During his 20-year career at American Express, Linville held responsibility for all U.S. cardmember, small business and merchant customer services. Most recently, he oversaw the consumer card group, membership rewards, the consumer travel network and the prepaid services group globally. Linville also led the AXP Interactive unit and managed all of American Express' marketing, service, cross-sell and acquisitions through Internet and e-mail channels.

"Jud's unmatched background and experience in managing one of the most highly regarded brands in the cards industry will be essential to building on the progress we have made," said Citi CEO Vikram Pandit in a release. "We expect enterprise payments to be a significant revenue driver for Citi."

Separately, Citi also announced the formation of a new global enterprise payments business unit to leverage the bank's wholesale and retail payment capabilities across regions and organizations globally. The unit will be led by Paul Galant, who will serve as CEO of global enterprise payments.