Robert Edward Rubin (born August 29, 1938) was the Chairman of Citigroup. He served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury during both the first and second Clinton Administrations.

Born in New York City, Rubin moved to Miami Beach, Florida at an early age and graduated from Miami Beach High School. In 1960, Rubin graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in economics from Harvard College, where he resided in Winthrop House. He then attended Harvard Law School for three days before leaving to see the world. He later attended the London School of Economics after graduation and received an LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1964.

Rubin began his career as an attorney at the firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York City. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1966 as an associate in the risk arbitrage department. Rubin proved his skills at the intricate art of investing his firm's capital in high-reward arbitrage opportunities and became a general partner in 1971. He joined the management committee in 1980 along with fellow Democrat Jon Corzine, later a U.S. senator and governor of New Jersey. Rubin was Vice Chairman and Co-Chief Operating Officer from 1987 to 1990. From the end of 1990 to 1992, Rubin served as Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner along with Stephen Friedman (PFIAB).

From January 20, 1993, to January 10, 1995, Robert Rubin served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. In that capacity, he directed the National Economic Council, which Bill Clinton created after winning the presidency.

The National Economic Council, or NEC, enabled the White House to coordinate closely the workings of the Cabinet departments and agencies on policies ranging from budget and tax to international trade and alleviating poverty. The NEC coordinated policy recommendations going into the President’s office, and monitored implementation of the decisions that came out.

Rubin, as the NEC’s first director, was credited with making the system work. As Robert Strauss, former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, said at the time, “He's surely the only man or woman in America that I know who could make the NEC succeed. Anyone else would have been a disruptive force, and the council wouldn't have worked.”

Rubin served as Treasury Secretary from January 10, 1995 to July 2, 1999, succeeding Lloyd Bentsen. Under Rubin's tenure, national deficits turned into surpluses (see Rubinomics), new policies were adopted to provide economic opportunity in distressed rural and urban communities, the currency was redesigned as a safeguard against technological advances in counterfeiting, and the Treasury introduced inflation-indexed securities..

In January 1995, one year after the signing of NAFTA and immediately after his swearing in as Secretary of Treasury, Mexico was suffering through a financial crisis possibly resulting in default on foreign obligations. President Bill Clinton with the advice of Secretary Rubin and Chairman Alan Greenspan provided $20 Billion in US loan guarantees to the Mexican government through the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF).

In 1997-1998, Treasury Secretary Rubin, Deputy Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan worked with the International Monetary Fund and others to effectively combat and contain financial crises in Russian, Asian, and Latin American financial markets. In its February 15, 1999 edition, Time Magazine dubbed the three policymakers “The Committee to Save the World.”

Upon Rubin’s retirement, President Clinton called him the “greatest secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton.”

“During his tenure as Treasury Secretary,” Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) said, “Bob was an ideal public servant who put policy before politics.”

Mr. Rubin was succeeded on July 1, 1999 as Treasury Secretary by his deputy, Lawrence H. Summers.

Upon leaving the Clinton Administration, Mr. Rubin joined the Board of The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the nation’s leading community development support organization as Chairman.

Reflecting on his decision to join an institution devoted to bringing economic activity to neglected areas of the country, the Chicago Tribune said the following in an editorial: “Even before he became Bill Clinton's treasury secretary, during his days as a high-powered Wall Street executive, Rubin was passionate about fostering business investment as the way to fight poverty in depressed city and rural areas. That made him somewhat unusual among Democrats, who generally emphasized government anti-poverty programs.”

Later, affirming his career-long interest in markets, Mr. Rubin joined Citigroup. He serves as a Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee, and remains there to this day. He sparked controversy in 2001 when he contacted an acquaintance at the Treasury Department and asked if the department could convince bond-rating agencies not to downgrade the corporate debt of Enron, a debtor of Citigroup. Rubin wanted Enron creditors to lend money to the troubled company for a restructuring of its debt; a collapse of the energy giant might have serious consequences for financial markets and energy distribution. The Treasury official refused. A subsequent congressional staff investigation cleared Rubin of any wrongdoing, but he was still harshly criticized by political opponents.

Rubin was also unwittingly mentioned in a brief scandal involving MA Governor Deval Patrick, who worked with him in the Clinton Administration. Patrick had served on the board of directors for Ameriquest Financial before his election to Governor, and the company has since run into financial problems regarding debt to Citigroup. Patrick placed a personal call on behalf of Ameriquest to Rubin, assuring him of the company's virtues. The call was widely denounced as Patrick abusing the power of his office to help out old friends, a theme against which he vigorously campaigned in 2006. There was no evidence or mention that Rubin did anything illegal or unethical.

Rubin has written a memoir, In an Uncertain World: Tough Choices from Wall Street to Washington (ISBN 0-375-50585-7), co-written by Jacob Weisberg. It was a New York Times bestseller as well as one of Business Week’s ten best business books of 2003.

He is currently engaged actively as a founder of The Hamilton Project, an economic policy think tank, which produces research and proposals on how to create a growing economy that benefits all Americans. In October 2003, he was named Vice Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and in June 2007, he was named Co-Chairman. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Mount Sinai-NYU Health. He is also a member of the Harvard Corporation.

Rubin is married to Judith Oxenberg Rubin, who served as the New York City Commissioner of Protocol for four years under Mayor David Dinkins. The Rubins have two grown sons, James and Philip.

During his time in the private sector, Rubin has served on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, the Ford Motor Company, Citigroup, the Harvard Corporation, the New York Futures Exchange, the New York City Partnership and the Center for National Policy. He has also served on the board of trustees of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Mt. Sinai Hospital and Medical School, the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Negotiations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Market Oversight and Financial Services Advisory Committee, the Mayor of New York's Council of Economic Advisors and the Governor's Council on Fiscal and Economic Priorities for the State of New York. On November 4, 2007, he became the Chairman of Citigroup and is currently co-chairman of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.

* Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X. * Rubin, Robert (2003). In An Uncertain World. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50585-7 *Crony-Capitalists Fiddle While Main Street Burns: Crashing Citigroup - accessed 12-03-07







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